Liverpool forward Diogo Jota insists he never arrived at Anfield thinking about displacing their established famed front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.

The Portugal international will reach the first anniversary of his maiden goal for the club when he returns to former side Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday.

While the point of his £45-million move made sense to Liverpool as it brought in a strong backup to their forward stars, the challenge the 24-year-old faced was considerable.

However, he announced himself with a Champions League hat-trick against Atalanta in early November and with Firmino’s form being patchy over the past 12 months Jota has become an important part of Liverpool’s attacking options.

“He’s an exceptional player. I’m really happy we signed him. He is a really strong personality, you cannot know about that before you met the person, but he is a really impressive, mature, young man,” said the manager.

“That makes it enjoyable to work with him. We spoke about it from time to time that it’s not easy to improve us but Diogo did that, definitely.

“He has scored important goals. He is a player made for our style: pretty intense, technically good, really fast, good in the air, both feet really good.

“Diogo is a very interesting package and I am really happy we saw that and could realise the transfer. That has helped us a lot.”