Another turn of the ball to break the goal! Jota has conquered opponents in the air seven times since joining Liverpool, a statistic that has ranked first in the Premier League in the same period (four times this season and first in the same period).
In the 2022 World Preliminary Tournament in Europe, Jota also scored 5 headers, becoming the "first air bully" among all players, and Cristiano Ronaldo ranked 3rd with 3 headers. Coupled with Felix's air raid in La Liga, the little masters and disciples got the true biography of Big Brother? Or are Portugals born good at headers?
1 meter 78 Jota: becoming the first air power in Europe today?
Jota Premier League First Air Bully? Believe it or not, it's a fact
Judging from the top scorer list, Jota scored 14 goals and ranked second, second only to teammate Salah. He scored 19.72 percent on goal, and among the top 13 players on the top 13 goalscorers list, only Vardy, Son Heung-min and Sterling (surprised you?). Taller than him.
Four of Jota's 14 goals came from headers, the first in the Premier League this season.
A distinctive feature of Jota's scoring of headers is the anticipation and movement of the landing point. This time scoring Watford, Jota came to the middle of the 2 defenders.
Because Liverpool's crosses were of high quality (whether it was right-backs Alexander-Arnold and Gomez, or left-backs Robertson and Zimikas), Jota's advantage in moving and grabbing points was also fully unleashed.
Watford, as a relegation zone team, is not without reason. They do have a lot of problems with their staring, this time Liverpool's free-kick attack, all of them shrunk in a line, lack of layering, and as a result, Jota's header was on goal.
If the tower is unguarded, the pull rod jumps back and abdomen to exert force, but unfortunately some of them fly the ball too hard. Overall, the advantages of The Jota's header are movement, anticipation of the landing point, and the feeling of touching the ball when the ball is a little bit, waist and abdomen power and control of balance are average.
Liverpool's second goal, which was also a blow to seal the victory, was still from the movement of Jota's back point, forcing the opposing defender to reach out and pull people, resulting in a penalty blow.
Fabinho hit a home penalty to keep Liverpool firmly on three points.
Jota's shot feels like it's on the rise: grabbing points on the move feels good
Judging from the feeling of Liverpool's top three scorers on goal (picking the efficiency of the shot, regardless of the deflection and blocking situation), Jota and Salah are in an upward momentum, and Mane is relatively struggling.
In the Portuguese national team, Jota is the attacker who swims. When C Ronaldo attracted the attention of multiple people defending, the team had B Fee, B Silva, Moutinho and other masters who were good at transferring the ball, allowing Jota to look for a fatal blow at the far end.
It is clear from the GIF that this time Serbia's defensive attention is on C Ronaldo. The latter's return pass, so that B Silva's cross found Jota at the back point, and met the ball a little bit to break the goal, which is Jota's favorite way.
Taking Portugal's 3-1 victory over Turkey in this World Cup play-off as an example, this wave of attack was initially a clever pass from C Ronaldo's retraction midfield, and then he inserted himself into the box, but unfortunately the quality of his teammate's cross was not high.
A somewhat exhausted Cristiano Ronaldo then remained in an offside position to direct his teammates, who passed to Ottavio on the ribs according to his instructions, and then the flank Dalot also did not have the ball on.
According to Ronaldo's plan, Ottavio should score Dalot, and then he can return to the non-offside position after Dalot dribbles the ball and wait for the cross and grab the point.
However, Otavio saw that the opponents of the three people were facing himself and Dalot, and all of them did not notice the empty Jota behind him, so he played a back corner pass.
It can be clearly seen from the GIF that C Ronaldo's command in this wave of attack misled the other party to a certain extent, and also allowed Ruota to enter his favorite back point impact position. Ottavio's cross was of high quality, and Jota once again met the ball a little and sent the ball to the bottom of the net.
The World Cup European head, who is only 178 cm tall, scored one more goal than 189 cm Mitrovic and two goals more than third place Maguire (194 cm), Kane (188 cm), Cristiano Ronaldo (187 cm), Buka (191 cm), Valles (184 cm) and Olsen (185 cm).
Scored 2 of 3 headers! Felix is also an air bully?
Headers break into Manchester United: Maguire can't defend
Judging from the area of activity this season, Simeone gradually found Felix's instruction manual. The Portuguese striker is now placed on the left side of the front line, which is also his favourite area at Benfica.
Recently, there have been many goals, and it is for this reason that Felix has found his own offensive rhythm.
Felix and Jota are somewhat similar, their advantage in grabbing points mainly comes from movement and grasp of space.
Facing Manchester United in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 knockout round, he beat Maguire to score with a header that relied on movement.
Felix has scored 3 headers and 2 goals this season, and you can't ask him to force Maguire to score.
But through the flexible movement of the feet and the prediction of the landing point, Felix thus penetrated the United defence.
Portuguese youth's header: Did you learn from Ronaldo?
These young Portuguese attackers, their bounces are not very good, they are all very good at head skills.
Is it because they all imitated C Luo's movements when they were young? Or is it that the Portuguese coach pays attention to cross training every day in order to cater to the tactical play of the national team?
Both Felix and Jota have excellent header skills, and after finding an empty opportunity, Felix's header this time after the waist and abdomen force is of high quality, topping the top corner of the goal, leaving the goalkeeper with no chance.
It can be seen that the young Portuguese attackers have a solid head technique, which is obviously the foundation laid during the youth training period.
The header thing: C Ronaldo really dares to call the first
Starting height + waist and abdomen power: C Ronaldo's header is really strong
Watching his little masters and disciples fully blossom in the field of head balls, C Luo should be very happy in his heart. In the World Cup, teammates who have more crosses and points will also help him amplify his advantage.
Compared to Jota and Felix's headers, which are more inclined to run position and technical flow, Ronaldo's header is first of all stronger than his super good bounce explosiveness.
In the top 5 heads of Ronaldo's career, the average starting height is even more than 2.5 meters, which is quite a terrible statistic.
Ronaldo scored Sampdoria's header at Juventus when the starting height reached 2.56 meters, even higher than the goal, and the height of the foot off the ground was also 0.71 meters!
What is even more frightening is that the 34-year-old can control his body balance at such a starting height, and after completing a 0.91 second lag, he accurately sends the ball to the bottom of the net.
Cristiano Ronaldo's highest career header came from facing his old club Manchester United. At that time Evra became his background board.
The French full-back has always been a supporter of Cristiano Ronaldo, and in addition to the Portuguese's crazy training enthusiasm when he was a teammate, perhaps this goal also has a certain impact.
Key headers: even more shocking
More importantly, Ronaldo's header scores do not only occur in daily life, the most critical competitions, he has also left a classic.
The most terrifying thing about C Luo is that he can keep his body in the air for a long time after pulling the lever, while still controlling the balance, so that when he touches the ball, his power will not be deflected.
We can compare one of the most important headers of Ronaldo's career (Chelsea in the 2008 Champions League final), although, like Jota, it was a cross from the back post. However, C Ronaldo was in the case of a very high jump, completely straightened his body and sent the ball into the dead corner of the goal.
I have to say that even the most critical commentators, even if they don't like Ronaldo, have to fully recognize when they see his head ability.
There was once a variety show on the street to place an equal-scale model of the C Luo head goal, so that passers-by could feel what it was like to jump a 2.65-meter head goal.
Obviously, even if the passerby completely loses the center of gravity, even if he uses his hands, he cannot effectively hit the ball.
Conclusion
In this World Cup, Portugal is divided with Uruguay, South Korea and Ghana, fortunately, these 3 opponents have good air defense capabilities, otherwise they really have to worry about being penetrated by the air raids of C Ronaldo and Jota.
However, the simplest tactics in the football world may also be the best to use in the moment of fighting. In a stalemate where the overall strength is close, or when the difference in strength needs to break the ice, the team with a good header really has an advantage.