Liverpool boss Arne Slot arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier League match at Tottenham Hotspur on December 22 2024
Liverpool boss Arne Slot arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier League match at Tottenham Hotspur on December 22 2024
Luis Diaz would be forgiven for football being long from his mind last Christmas. After a few months in which his parents were kidnapped in his native Colombia and his father was held captive for more than a week, being together with family was undoubtedly the only real consideration.
The festive period, though, proved something of a turning point in Diaz's Anfield career. And as he prepares to celebrate another Christmas, his two goals in the thrilling 6-3 Premier League win at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon was a reminder of the huge contribution the winger has provided during the last 12 months.
Up until the Boxing Day trip to Burnley last year, Diaz had scored four goals in the campaign but hadn't provided a Premier League assist since the 3-2 defeat at Arsenal in October 2022 during which he suffered a knee injury that ultimately kept him out of action for six months.
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That drought, though, ended when he set up Diogo Jota at Turf Moor to clinch a 2-0 triumph, sparking an upturn in form as Diaz accepted the increased responsibility to increase his attacking numbers, particularly given the absence of Mohamed Salah through injury for a significant period during the second half of the campaign.
Diaz developed a propensity for delivering in the biggest games, scoring against Chelsea and Manchester United in the Premier League, at Arsenal in the FA Cup and netting the goal at Fulham in the League Cup semi-final second leg that ultimately booked Liverpool their place at Wembley.
In the final against Chelsea, Diaz was among those who played the full 120 minutes as an injury-hit Reds side battled against the odds to win what proved the final trophy of Jurgen Klopp's glittering reign.
But the arrival of a new Liverpool boss in Arne Slot heightened long-touted rumours Diaz would seek pastures new in the summer, with Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain all reportedly interested. With the Reds then accepting the chance to sign Anthony Gordon from Newcastle United, it seemed the Colombian's race was run at Anfield.
Not so. Newcastle pulled the plug on the deal for Gordon and, with Barcelona's financial concerns well documented and neither Atletico nor PSG showing any inclination of entertaining a claimed asking price of £75million for Diaz, the player, having featured for his country in their Copa America final defeat to Argentina, returned to the AXA Training Centre intent on persuading Slot of his importance to the Liverpool team.
Two well-taken goals in the penultimate pre-season friendly against Sevilla at Anfield were sufficient for Diaz to start the campaign on the left flank, with Slot having taken an early decision to indicate the Colombian was in direct opposition with Cody Gakpo for the role.
With five goals and an assist in the first five Premier League games of the season - including a memorable brace in the 3-0 romp at Manchester United in early September - Diaz was very much the man in possession.
But Slot's subsequent decision to embrace the 27-year-old's versatility across the front line has been fruitful. Diaz started on the right when scoring late on in the 3-2 League Cup win at Brighton, and the following midweek was surprisingly asked to operate down the centre of the attack in the Champions League clash at home to Bayer Leverkusen and responded with a first career hat-trick in a 4-0 win.
With Jota having fitness concerns and Darwin Nunez struggling for form, it has provided a welcome bonus, Diaz also the central striker against Manchester City, Fulham and, at the weekend, in the win over Tottenham, where his willingness to drop into midfield was noted by skipper Virgil van Dijk. In terms of a number nine, it had echoes of Roberto Firmino.
Diaz, of course, was on a revenge mission of sorts in North London having had a goal in the 2-1 defeat at Tottenham last season fail to appear on the scoresheet despite being confirmed by VAR following an unprecedented blunder by the officials. Job done in that regard.
Given Sadio Mane's positional shift during the final months of his Liverpool career in 2022, Diaz isn't the first winger to be transformed into a devastatingly effective central attacking force in recent times.
"I think it’s good," says Gakpo of playing on the left with Diaz inside. "Sometimes he comes to the left and I go in the middle, then we switch again. It has been a good dynamic and we both get in dangerous positions to score.
"He showed again on Sunday how dangerous he is – in the box with his head, and his second goal I think was a great run and a good finish. I think when we play together, the way we click together is that we go in each other’s positions and going back, trying to make our actions and getting each other in the best possible position to be dangerous."
The return of Jota and Slot's insistence he can get a tune out of Nunez means Diaz can expect to spend much of the rest of the campaign back scrapping with Gakpo on the left flank.
But with 11 goals already this season - only two off his best-ever Reds tally achieved last term - the Colombian is likely to be key to any success under Slot. After all, as his song suggests, Diaz came to Liverpool to score.