Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp reserved special praise for Diogo Jota for his "exceptional" second goal in the Reds' nervy 3-2 Premier League win over Nottingham Forest at Anfield.
Five days after scoring his first two Premier League goals of the season in Liverpool's 6-1 victory over Leeds United, Jota made it back-to-back braces to help the Reds see off a spirited Forest side.
After a frustrating first half for Liverpool, who struggled to carve out opportunities against a staunch Forest defence, Jota headed home the opener from close range after Steve Cooper's side failed to deal with a corner.
Forest swiftly levelled through Neco Williams's deflected strike, but Jota restored Liverpool's lead just three minutes later, finding space to chest down Andy Robertson's free kick and expertly volley home into the far corner.
For the second time on the day, though, Liverpool's lead was wiped out by a Morgan Gibbs-White volley, but Mohamed Salah's 183rd goal for the club - taking him level with Robbie Fowler in sixth place in the club's all-time scoring charts - ultimately put the visitors to the sword and sealed Liverpool's second top-flight win on the bounce.
Jota's opener at Anfield came after he had spurned a magnificent chance towards the end of the first half, and Klopp was overjoyed to see the 26-year-old continue his "wonderful" hot streak.
"I think the second goal you really can see what goals do to offensive players. They give confidence. It was a super first touch, it didn't look like a massive chance in the first moment when you see three in the box, bam, first touch great and then the second one is just exceptional," Klopp said in his post-game press conference.
"He could have scored a third one in the first half already – I'm not sure, did he have a chance in the second half for the third? Again, that shows you can, as an offensive player, be involved in absolutely each defensive situation and be still a threat offensively. There's no if [or] or – you can do both and Diogo is doing that.
"That makes him, for us, so valuable and that's why he deserves that obviously. It's wonderful after the long, long time that he was out and now having these positive things – was involved in the Arsenal equaliser in a very important manner and now scoring twice a brace – is top."
Saturday's five-goal thriller was characterised by both sides struggling to defend set-pieces, with the long throws of Moussa Niakhate in particular causing the Liverpool backline all sorts of problems.
Klopp added that his side failed to control the "chaos" that Forest caused after going behind, while also admitting that Niakhate's throws into the box created a "mess" for his defenders.
"When the ball was out, then the game really started – the throw-ins created a proper mess for us. You can prepare a lot in football – and this game was now the preparation for us for the future – but for this kind of thing, obviously we were not prepared well enough," Klopp added.
"We knew about the threat: when Niakhate has the ball and throws it into the box. We should have controlled it a bit better. In most moments we controlled it but in these little moments they just needed a throw-in and everything ended in chaos again and that made life really difficult.
"We came through it and I am happy, really happy, because we showed a lot of things I wanted to see. It's three super important points."
Liverpool have now leapfrogged Brighton & Hove Albion into seventh place in the table - six points adrift of Newcastle United in the final Champions League spot - but the Magpies boast a game in hand, while Brighton have played two fewer matches than Klopp's crop.
Next up for Liverpool is a trip to West Ham United on Wednesday before they round off the month at home to Tottenham Hotspur on April 30. body check tags ::
