Arne Slot suggests £50m Liverpool player deserves just as much praise as Mo Salah after Aston Villa win

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Liverpool secured a 2-0 win against Aston Villa to move five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table.

Goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah either side of half-time gave the Reds a rather comfortable win at Anfield as Arne Slot continues to break records in his first few months in charge of the club.

Salah became the first player in Europe’s top-five goals to get ten goals and assists apiece this season, a stat that shows just how good he has been under the new Liverpool manager.

However, Slot named another player who deserves just as much credit as the Egyptian, if not more.

Arne Slot lauds Luis Diaz after Liverpool vs Aston Villa

Salah notched up a goal and an assist apiece and performed brilliantly against an exciting Villa side as his late goal put the result beyond reasonable doubt.

However, after the game, Slot was quick to acknowledge Luis Diaz’s contributions as the Colombian worked his socks off defensively to see off the game for his team.

“I think he (Salah) has the best numbers from all of our attackers,” said Slot on TNT Sports.

“All of our attackers have great numbers, but Mo stands out in that aspect. But apart from the numbers our forwards have, let’s not forget the defensive run Lucho Diaz made to make sure we could have kept a clean sheet.”

Diaz’s stats vs Villa

Slot lauded Diaz after his performance against Brighton last week and the Colombian rewarded his manager with a hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen.

He earned praise for his defensive work rate and a deeper look into his stats from the game suggests he actually did his bit to help out the Liverpool rearguard.

• 8 duels won (ground and aerial)
• 3 dribbles completed to relieve the pressure
• 3 fouls won
• 2 clearances
• 1 tackle

He didn’t get a goal or an assist today but delivered an energetic performance as he once again finished the game as a centre-forward after Nunez was substituted.

Diaz is playing arguably the best football of his Liverpool career since moving to the club for £50m in January 2022 and has shown his class under the new manager.

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