Luis Diaz would no doubt be a welcome breath of fresh air in Liverpool’s matchday squad with the Reds sorely missing his electric pace and dynamism in the forward line.
Until the point of his return from injury, however, fans should have no need to worry over the Colombian’s future at Anfield following a spate of rumours suggesting the club would consider a swap deal, using the wide man as leverage to secure AC Milan’s Rafael Leao, as Calciomercato report (via the Mirror).
Jurgen Klopp’s expression of admiration for the 26-year-old ahead of an upcoming encounter with Wolves certainly made clear that his future very much remains at Anfield.
“It’s a different situation to last year, he came here after playing all the games for Porto pretty much and now he’s out for an injury for the second time,” the 55-year-old told reporters in the embargoes section of his pre-match press conference.
“I can tell you the two sessions he had with us in Dubai in the training camp it was like ‘oh my God, how good is that?’
“Then he was injured again. When he’s back, he’ll be very good and impactful of course, that’s clear.
“How quick? I don’t know. We have to see, that’s the big challenge in this moment. There’s no time for being patient but you have to be patient.”
Further fixtures against Manchester United and Real Madrid mean that the German’s men will face perhaps their toughest month yet of fixtures, particularly in light of the Red Devils’ apparent resurgence under Erik ten Hag.
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With Cody Gakpo showing signs of finding his feet in the famous red shirt, questions have to be raised as to how the manager would restructure his forward line for Diaz’s return.
The possibility of playing a quartet of attackers has previously been floated and the arrival of the Dutch international in January would, perhaps, make that opportunity more realistic given his aptitude for Bobby Firmino’s traditional role with us.
Theoretically, the former PSV man could operate behind a front-three of the Colombian international, Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah as a No.10 of sorts, which would play into his strength when running into space with the ball, not to mention link-up play.
With Diogo Jota and our No.9 in reserve, and perhaps Harvey Elliott too, there would be options available for Klopp to rotate his forward line.
Admittedly, it’s a scenario we’ll be kept waiting for in light of Diaz’s injury timeline, though one we’d be excited to witness if the balance can be struck right.
You can catch the full snippet below, courtesy of @empireofthekop: