Diogo Jota has hailed the unpredictability of Liverpool teammate Luis Diaz.
Diaz was excellent for Liverpool last night, scoring a beautifully improvised backheel finish to round of the scoring in a 3-1 win over Darmstadt.
Jota was also on the scoresheet, putting the cherry on top of a great pre-season for him personally. And speaking to LFCTV after the game, the Portuguese was asked to give his thoughts on what Diaz can offer the Liverpool attack.
“He’s exactly that – unpredictable,” Jota said. “That kind of winger who goes one-v-one and creates chances from nothing.
“He’s very helpful for us when we reach the final third to do something with the ball. Last season he had an injury, hopefully this season he can crack on and show us what he can offer.”
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Diaz gives Liverpool unpredictable boost
If there’s one thing that Liverpool could have used in their squad last season, it was unpredictability.
The Reds were too often just far too easy for the opposition to work out. Jurgen Klopp tried all sorts of different personnel, but in the end the system was largely the same.
There was a tweak mid-season as Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah were his only two fit attackers.
But even then, there was no variation to how Liverpool played once the game got going. Teams knew what Darwin was all about, and they knew what Mo was trying to do, too.
But Diaz gives that something a little different. To be fair to Nunez in particular, he is a player who you’re never quite sure what he’s going to do next.
In general though, the Uruguayan is still honing is trade. This unpredictability feels like more a by-product of him being not exactly sure what he’s going to do himself.
With Diaz that isn’t the case. The Colombian always looks to be thinking a couple of steps ahead of opponents. Everything he does looks deliberate, but you also feel that he could do anything at any time. As Jota says, we can’t wait to see more of that this season.