Arne Slot confirms ‘special programme’ in place for injury-prone Liverpool finisher
Liverpool have a squad of brilliant players and Arne Slot has to balance game time with fitness on a daily basis, something that he has discussed with the media.
Speaking with the press before playing Nottingham Forest, the Dutchman provided an insight on the fitness of Diogo Jota: “I think all of them have for 80 per cent the same programme and then the last 20 per cent is for every player individual.
“They do individual work in the gym as well. It’s not only for him that we have a special programme.
“We try to have a special programme for all the squad players we have. It’s true. He is, like all the others, someone I like to have in my squad.
“I like to have him available and when it comes to building up his match fitness, I think you also saw that it went from 30 minutes to 30 minutes to a bit more and a bit more.
“Now he’s ready to play 90 and that’s a good thing because we have to play many games in the upcoming weeks.
“It’s nice to have him available and hopefully it stays like this for the last four or five months.”
It’s interesting to see how much care is made to ensure that each player’s individual needs are catered for, so that we can get the best out of them.
Diogo Jota is a big asset to Liverpool when fit and available
One big change we’ve seen under our new boss is more patience when it comes to players returning from injury, especially with our No.20.
It’s been a conscious decision to manage the minutes of a player that looked fit and sharp but wasn’t deemed ready to play a bigger role.
It was a carefully devised plan to build up to playing 90 minutes against Accrington Stanley, an opponent that would test the Portuguese international as much as others.
Being handed the captain’s armband during the game was an illustration of how much the former Wolves man is rated by everyone within the club, so this desire to have him back at 100% would be huge.
We saw with the 28-year-old’s celebrations on the bench against Manchester United that he is fully committed to the cause and let’s hope he’s the best version of himself very soon.
You can watch Slot’s comments on Jota via Liverpool FC on YouTube:
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