Jurgen Klopp was delighted with Luis Diaz’s debut for Liverpool last night.
In a near perfect evening for The Reds, the Colombian shone as Klopp’s side cruised to a 2-0 win against Leicester City.
Truthfully, it looked like Diaz had been playing for Liverpool for years, not days. His link-up play down the line with Andy Robertson looked almost telepathic.
Asked after the game, Klopp said that he hadn’t given Diaz any specific information. He insisted that the 25-year-old was just playing his natural game.
“For a first game, come on, what a performance,” Klopp told BBC Sport.
“He is a natural, very natural football player. Obviously when a boy comes in in the winter transfer period we don’t have a lot of time and we don’t overload these boys then, we just let them play more or less with a few (bits of) information.”
Klopp gave an interesting insight as to why Diaz has been able to fit into Liverpool’s tactical system so smoothly.
“From the first session he looked like he studied us,” continued the manager.
“In the time when he was with Colombia, probably in-between the games they played he only watched Liverpool games.”
That kind of meticulousness and hunger is the type of thing that will instantly put Diaz in Klopp’s good books.
What did Diaz do well
Aside from his link-up with Robertson, Diaz looked a constant threat in the last third.
Surprisingly, he looked to be often hanging on shoulder of the last defender. It was recently reported that Liverpool think Diaz could play through the middle. On this evidence, that looks absolutely correct.
But one thing that really stood out was his sheer pace. The boy is lighting fast. Liverpool rely on the pace of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah to punish teams quickly on the break.
In Diaz, The Reds look to have found someone who’s quicker than them both.
Judging by Klopp’s post-game comments, that’s something that he is excited to work with.
“It’s really natural,” said the 54-year-old.
“He’s doing a lot of stuff just in the right way and on top of that he’s an incredible talent with nice speed as well.”
It was a shame that Diaz couldn’t find the goal he looked desperate for last night. But as far as debuts go, it doesn’t really get much better than his performance last night.
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