Diogo Jota has delivered a rallying cry to his Liverpool team-mates as they look to bounce back from a winless start to the Premier League season.
The Reds were only able to draw against Fulham and Crystal Palace, before being defeated by fierce rivals Manchester United on Monday. It leaves them a lowly 16th place in the table after three games, with Jurgen Klopp's side looking off the pace.
Part of the reasoning for their slow start has been a raft of injuries that have hit Klopp's squad. Jota is one of the players who have been sidelined, with the attacker having suffered a hamstring problem in the first weeks of pre-season.
The Portugal international is not expected to return to full fitness until the start of September, which would mean that he misses two more games. In his absence, the Reds will first host Bournemouth on Saturday as they seek to turn their season around.
In the build-up to what already appears to be a huge clash at Anfield, Jota has issued a rallying call to his team-mates. He called on them to continue to strive for improvement, rather than settle.
Asked his ambitions for the season, he told Sky Sports : "The aim to fight for every trophy. For me personally it is to try to score more goals than last year. To be better. To conquer things that I have not conquered before. To reach my prime. I know that I can still be a lot better. That is what makes me willing to give more every day.
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“The hard thing is not to reach the top of the mountain but to stay there. That phrase makes a lot of sense, certainly to me. It is the hardest bit because you always have people who want to reach there for the first time. You can never let them have more will than you.”
Despite the injury crisis that has hit Klopp's side, they are not expected to add to their squad in this summer's transfer market. Darwin Nunez, Fabio Carvalho and Calvin Ramsay are the only three additions the Reds have made so far.
Despite that low level of business, Jota has insisted that he believes their recruitment strategy is the correct one to follow. And he believes that the fringe members of Klopp's squad will continue to step up to play key roles.
“I don’t know but I have the feeling that it is working. They are capturing the best young players, building and rebuilding again. I think you can notice that we have a lot of good young players now so everything seems to be in place. It is working well," he added.
“We know how important that Divock and Taki were when they played. For this season, we want it to be the same. Especially when we want to go for everything again like we did last year. We know we will need everyone. Everyone will be important. We just need to be ready for our moment.”
