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Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp warned he cannot drop Diogo Jota vs Man City after hat-trick
Diogo Jota hit a hat-trick for Liverpool on Tuesday night as they thrashed Atalanta 5-0 in the Champions League.
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Chris Sutton has claimed Jurgen Klopp cannot drop Diogo Jota for Sunday's trip to Manchester City, on the back of his Atalanta masterclass. The Portuguese was brought in to replace the rested Roberto Firmino and he laid down a clear marker which suggests he's not come to Anfield to make up the numbers.
Jota arrived just two months ago from Wolves for an initial fee of around £40million.
Liverpool looked ready to begin the season without signing another attacker after pulling out of the race for Timo Werner.
However, the surprise acquisition of Jota already looks another masterstroke from Michael Edwards following his blistering start to the campaign.
Jota already has seven goals for his new club including four in the Champions League, following last night's emphatic treble.
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According to BT Sport pundit Sutton, there is simply no way Klopp can drop Jota back to the bench when the Reds travel to the Etihad Stadium this weekend.
When asked by presenter Matt Smith on the Champions League Highlights Show if the German may drop Jota, Sutton said: "He can't do can he? He scored a hat-trick, he's led the line superbly.
"He's a different sort of player to Firmino and we saw it with some of his goals.
"He's different to Firmino, who likes to come to the ball but he'll come to the ball and spin in behind.
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"What a threat. I actually thought this would be a really tough game for them.
"Atalanta are a front-foot team, have scored a lot of goals this season but Liverpool thought there will be chances for us and so it proved."
Smith then added: "Firmino does offer the link-up play that makes the other two shine but with Jota you've got three arrows.
"There's great pace, great trickery and obviously he knows where the goal is.
"It's his third hat-trick in ten months when you include his two for Wolves last season."
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Klopp was left frustrated at talk Firmino may now be out of favour.
He said: "The world is sometimes a bad place, in the moment when somebody is shining we immediately speak about another player who played what feels like 500 games in a row. Without Bobby Firmino we would not even be in the CL [Champions League].
“For us it is important that we have more than 11. Tonight, Diogo played a super, super game but that says nothing about Bobby, and has nothing to do with me causing headaches.
"I am more than happy that the boys played like they played tonight.”