The Colombian louis diaz continues to impress with Liverpool and is becoming more and more consolidated in the scheme of a team that this Wednesday, at Anfield Road, his home, will seek to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League and maintain the advantage that they already achieved against Inter (3 pm, with a signal from ESPN).
Díaz came on after 60 minutes of play in the first leg to replace Senegalese Sadio Mané, and made his contribution to an important 2-0 win at the San Siro, achieved through goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.
It is not normal for Liverpool, at least since Jürgen Klopp is the team’s coach, to contract in the winter market. But the bid with Tottenham accelerated the arrival of Díaz from Porto.
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“I have always firmly believed that a player should not be signed in January, unless we also want to sign him in the June market, and this is the case with Luis. He is an excellent player who we have followed for a long time, ”Klopp explained at the time.
A historic Liverpool player backs Luis Díaz
Already old figures of the club begin to highlight the weight that the farmer gains in the structure of the team. “He is the type of player that, when you are a spectator, he makes you vibrate in the seat. He is direct, quick and aggressive,” said Scotsman Graeme Souness, who won three European Cups with Liverpool as a player (1979, 1981 and 1984) and was also the team’s manager between 1991 and 1994.
“He does the kinds of things that the public loves. When he loses the ball, he runs and makes a tackle to get it back. There are many reasons for you to like Diaz, and this system suits him perfectly,” Souness said when the Colombian was hired.
Another English figure hopes Diaz proves his worth
Other former glories of English football, however, believe that, after having dazzled in the first games, the demand increases and that is where Díaz must show his weight.
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“When teams discuss how to take on Liverpool and who to stop, they don’t just talk about Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and Diogo Jota, but also Luis Díaz. So now it’s a different game for him, and this is when we’re going to see what he’s made of,” said Paul Merson, a France ’98 World Cup player, former Arsenal player and Hamilton Ricard’s teammate at Middlesbrough.
In dialogue with the British tabloid Daily Star, Merson added: “Luis Díaz has had such an outstanding performance at Liverpool that he is already a man marked by rivals. He came in and caught everyone in the debut. The defenders hadn’t seen much of him or knew about him, and he took them by surprise. Now, all of a sudden, he’s on the radar and that’s when he has to produce. Now it is in the conversations of all the rivals”.
Then, aware of the importance of Díaz, Merson concluded: “What I have seen so far has impressed me a lot. The first touch of him, the movement of him, his team play, his work ethic, the definition of him, the skills of him… Everything about him has been exceptional.”
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