Jurgen Klopp insists Diogo Jota’s blistering Liverpool form will not impact Roberto Firmino’s first-team prospects.
Jota scored a hat-trick in the Reds’ emphatic Champions League win over Atalanta on Tuesday, taking his tally to six goals from the last four games.
The Portugal international started at the Gewiss Stadium in place of Firmino, who has suffered a downturn in form since the beginning of the campaign.
But Klopp dismissed claims that Jota’s starring role in the 5-0 win will see Liverpool’s no.9 marginalised for Sunday’s showdown with Manchester City.
He said: “Good performances never give me a headache!
“Tonight the decision was clear, it made sense first of all to use the good shape Diogo was in, and secondly because of the way Atalanta plays and defends, we should use the skillset of Diogo to help us.
“The world is sometimes a bad place, that 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 be in the Champions League even.
“He will be in the team, and for a lot of people in the world if you ask them ‘what makes Liverpool special?’ they would say ‘the way Bobby Firmino is playing’.
“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.”