Jurgen Klopp paid tribute to Diogo Jota after his two goals against Arsenal helped Liverpool to the Carabao Cup final.
The Portugal international scored twice as the Reds beat the Gunners 2-0 in the second leg of their semi-final tie at the Emirates on Thursday night to set up a Wembley showdown with Chelsea next month.
Jota's double takes him up to 14 for the season, which is one more than he managed across the entirety of last season and Klopp was full of praise for the forward after the game in north London.
And the Liverpool manager explained just what it was that made the club pay an initial £40m to Wolves in September 2020 for the transfer of Jota.
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"His mentality mixed with his quality was the reason we signed Diogo," Klopp said.
"The way he played at Wolves, the yards he had to make there, runs he had to make, the defending he had to do, he was still able to produce some really exciting stuff and that is the reason we signed him.
"He showed that now in our games and that is really nice to see. He has 14 goals and he is incredibly important for us.
"The mix of his skill set is really exciting. He is in good shape as well."
Klopp added: "I thought we had so many who were outstanding.
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"It was a very important game against a really strong Arsenal side and with the problems that we had, which means we don't have too many options to change it, I thought what the boys did was really special.
"It was Arsenal, so they were really aggressive and straight forward and we had to adapt to the game, but we calmed it down and we controlled the game, playing some really good stuff.
"You can still say the first one is a team goal, even though Diogo had a lot to do.
"But Trent (Alexander-Arnold) finding the space and Diogo going across the line of the defenders was really difficult to defend.
"The second goal, I don't think many people in the stadium saw Diogo Jota free but Trent saw it!
"Then what a finish. We defended well against Arsenal's long balls in behind with the speed they have on the wing with (Bukayo) Saka and (Gabriel) Martinelli.
"So that's really special. We were awake in these moments and played football. The first 10 minutes I didn't like but we grew into the game and became really flexible."
Klopp gave more unprompted praise to Arsenal star Martinelli when he said: "Martinelli by the way...everybody should remember that name. Outstanding player."
Liverpool will contest the final against Chelsea on February 27.
