Liverpool’s ‘unstoppable’ successor for Luis Diaz has already announced himself this season

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One line of thinking on Liverpool’s lack of form this season is that it has something to do with the departure of Luis Diaz this summer.

Diaz left the Reds after three-and-a-half successful years in which he became a staple of the team under Jurgen Klopp and then Arne Slot.

Liverpool did not want to lose the Colombian before the new season, but Diaz made it clear that his preference was to leave.

After some transfer wrangling, the 28-year-old eventually joined Bayern Munich, where he has made an impressive start to the campaign.

Daniel Sturridge pointed out how much Liverpool miss Diaz after Saturday’s loss against Chelsea, claiming that Slot’s team no longer have an attacker who is willing to do so much defensive work.

Many Liverpool supporters would agree, having been disappointed at the lack of a direct replacement being signed in the summer. However, there is an argument that Slot does have a successor to Diaz, and he simply needs to get him out on the pitch.

Federico Chiesa can be Arne Slot’s new Luis Diaz

The qualities Sturridge highlighted in why Liverpool miss Diaz were mainly to do with his hard work off the ball.

The former No. 7 would hassle and harry defenders at every opportunity while also ensuring he helped Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas out at left-back.

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With Slot still working out which of his forwards can now do this job, he has already been shown more than once that Federico Chiesa is the man to turn to.

Chiesa is a relentlessly hard worker on the pitch. He will never shirk his responsibilities and is constantly doing whatever he can to win the ball back.

With Cody Gakpo struggling to put a run of form together – and Rio Ngumoha still far too young to be considered a regular option – Chiesa deserves his chance to step up.

On Saturday, Liverpool supporters were disappointed to see Slot turn to Wataru Endo instead of Chiesa for the final few minutes of the game.

Ultimately, the decision may have cost the Reds, with Endo failing to track Marc Cucurella, who supplied the pass for Willan Estevao to win the game. Had Chiesa come on instead, Liverpool would have had an extra forward who Chelsea knew would not stop working.

Chiesa should be Liverpool’s starting left winger

Although Gakpo scored against Chelsea, his form so far this season has been incredibly disappointing.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	ArsenalArsenal	7	5	1	1	14	3	11	16
2	LiverpoolLiverpool	7	5	0	2	13	9	4	15

Without Diaz to challenge him, the Dutchman has been more or less guaranteed his place in the starting XI.

But after a third loss in a row, that has to change. Chiesa has shown more in his limited time on the pitch than Gakpo in all of his. It is time Slot trusted him from the start of matches.

The plan could still be that Hugo Ekitike or Alexander Isak play more regularly from the left once the latter is fully up to speed. However, in Chiesa, Slot would have a more Diaz-like player ready to rewind the clock to last season.

Liverpool may not have replaced Diaz directly, but the Italy international deserves to be given the chance to show he can do it. From what we’ve seen so far, he is the man for the job.