Neil Warnock has claimed that Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha would have fit in perfectly at Liverpool.
Speaking on TalkSPORT, Warnock compared Zaha to Liverpool’s newest recruit, Luis Diaz.
“I think he would’ve been a great fit for Liverpool,” said the former Sheffield United manager.
“I know it sounds silly, but you look at the lad they’ve just signed (Diaz) who’s ripping it up and I think he’s very similar in that respect, in the fact that he commits people, he goes at them.”
It isn’t a comparison completely without merit from Warnock. The two do have a similar direct style to the way they attack down the wing. It’s a style that’s sure to get the crowd on their feet.
Zaha is also a relatively consistent goalscorer from the left-wing. He has nine Premier League goals this season for Palace and looks certain to get into double figures for the third time in four seasons.
However, he has never come close to matching Diaz’s current tally of 18 across all competitions. Granted, 16 of those came whilst playing for Porto.
But two goals in five Premier League games so far suggest that Diaz poses a greater goalscoring threat than the Ivory Coast international ever has.
Priced out of a move
When Warnock is asked why Zaha is still at Palace, he says that ‘circumstances’ have gone against the 29-year-old.
The truth is more likely that the London side priced their star man out of a move away from Selhurst Park.
Several times down the years he looked likely to leave. Ahead of the 2018/19 season it seemed that Zaha was ready to join one of the country’s top teams.
But according to The Mirror, the price was set at £75m. That’s an absolutely phenomenal amount of money for someone who failed to make the adjustment of playing for Manchester United earlier in his career.
Interestingly, Liverpool were never suggested as being in the running for Zaha. That’s perhaps because they already had Sadio Mane in the position and he was beating the Palace man by just about every metric.
Being just six months or so younger than Mane, Zaha could never be considered a long-term replacement for the Senegalese. His best years are potentially already behind him. Diaz, on the other hand, looks ready to take the country by storm.
As Zaha nears 30, it’s unlikely that he’ll ever get the big move he looked destined for. Equally unlikely is that Liverpool will rue never pushing hard to secure his signature.
That’s because, in Diaz, they have a player who has the potential to be far better.
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