Diogo Jota fans will love Jermain Defoe comments on Liverpool striker debate

Jermain Defoe has had his say on who he believes is Liverpool’s best finisher amid the frustration centered around their frontline.

The Reds were in great shape in March as they hunted down three other trophies having already secured the Carabao Cup. However, it all quickly fell away in the space of a few weeks as failures in front of goal derailed their title challenge. It all came to a head against Crystal Palace as Liverpool passed up an extraordinary amount of chances to all but surrender the title to Manchester City and Arsenal.

Despite their season fall-off, it has been a particularly potent season in front of goal for their five main attackers. All of Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota have scored a minimum of 10 goals in all competitions but the standards have been raised so high that all five have faced criticism across the season.

With a new manager set to arrive this summer (most likely Arne Slot) there are question marks over how he will set up the attack. Defoe has weighed in on the quality of their frontline, citing that Jota stands out ahead of the pack for his finishing ability. “I think Jota is probably the best finisher,” Defoe told Premier League Productions.

“He actually finishes, like calculated finishes. Salah and Núñez, they shoot if that makes sense. They don’t finish. Even Núñez, in the last action when he went through on goal, the obvious solution was to go around the goalkeeper and then pass it into an empty net. But, for whatever reason, he tries to dink it over him. It’s the wrong thing to do in that situation.

“The chances, when it comes consistently, like week after week and game after game and you are missing all these chances, then you are competing against teams like Man City and Arsenal that get these chances and players are converting these chances. Then you are going to fall behind.”

The front five have a combined 128 goal contributions in all competitions which is an incredible return. In terms of Jota, he missed key fixtures in the title run-in such as the draw with Manchester United and he could only come off the bench late against Palace where his precise finishing could have made the difference.