When Liverpool broke their club record fee twice in one summer, they did so with an eye on replacing Mohamed Salah’s output.
After seeing him win the Premier League‘s Golden Boot, they bought the league’s second-top scorer, Alexander Isak.
And with Salah leading the league for assists, they moved for Florian Wirtz, one of the premier creative players in world football.
Neither player replaced the Egyptian King’s less tangible quality. However, the way Salah grabbed opposition defenders’ attention…that’s something Yan Diomande knows all about.
So why are Liverpool willing to go so big on this kid from RB Leipzig?
Making an impact, every time
3D2K26M Leipzig, Germany. 01st Nov, 2025. Soccer: Bundesliga, RB Leipzig - VfB Stuttgart, Matchday 9, Red Bull Arena. Yan Diomande (RB Leipzig) reacts after the 1:0. Credit: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa - IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with the regulations of the DFL German Football League and the DFB German Football Association, it is prohibited to utilize or have utilized photographs taken in the stadium and/or of the match in the form of sequential images and/or video-like photo series./dpa/Alamy Live News
3D2K26M Leipzig, Germany. 01st Nov, 2025. Soccer: Bundesliga, RB Leipzig - VfB Stuttgart, Matchday 9, Red Bull Arena. Yan Diomande (RB Leipzig) reacts after the 1:0. Credit: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa - IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with the regulations of the DFL German Football League and the DFB German Football Association, it is prohibited to utilize or have utilized photographs taken in the stadium and/or of the match in the form of sequential images and/or video-like photo series./dpa/Alamy Live News
Firstly, for a player so young, Yan Diomande has a number of excellent qualities.
He’s fast, he’s strong, he can shoot cleanly with both feet, he can play on either flank and he’s equally comfortable dribbling on the inside or outside of his opponent.
He looks great on YouTube, but can he really be decisive at the top of the Premier League?
The key data metric to understand his appeal is ‘productive dribbles’. This simply measures dribbles that result in a positive attacking outcome – a goal, a shot, a foul won, etc. – rather than fizzling out.
Diomande immediately stands out in this regard, matching his incredible dribble success rate with a tangible end product that few beyond the phenom Lamine Yamal can provide.
Considering Andoni Iraola famously said “forget about the pattern, just drive the ball and try to force things to happen,” it’s no surprise his new club want the Ivorian.
But what impact do these dribbles have?
Yan Diomande takes up attention
The aura of inevitability around Salah frequently invited attention from opposition defenders.
When a defender goes out to confront the attacking player, it can introduce tension for the rest of the defence.
Do you leave your mate one-on-one against the star or do you send reinforcements, creating a free space elsewhere for another opponent to exploit?
3DDK707 Marrakesh, Marocco. 31st Dec, 2025. December 31 2025: Yan Diomande of Ivory Coast gestures during a 2025 AFCON Africa Cup of Nations game, Gabon vs Ivory Coast, at Marrakesh stadium, Marrakesh, Marocco. Ulrik Pedersen/CSM/Sipa USA (Credit Image: © Ulrik Pedersen/Cal Sport Media/Sipa USA) Credit: Sipa US/Alamy Live News
3DDK707 Marrakesh, Marocco. 31st Dec, 2025. December 31 2025: Yan Diomande of Ivory Coast gestures during a 2025 AFCON Africa Cup of Nations game, Gabon vs Ivory Coast, at Marrakesh stadium, Marrakesh, Marocco. Ulrik Pedersen/CSM/Sipa USA (Credit Image: © Ulrik Pedersen/Cal Sport Media/Sipa USA) Credit: Sipa US/Alamy Live News
That sense of inevitability was lacking last season as Liverpool lost their fear factor against many opponents, and it meant fewer questions being asked of opposition defences.
But we did see a glimmer of it in one game, with Salah the beneficiary rather than the instigator.
Here, Liverpool’s resident wonderkid Rio Ngumoha is attacking the Fulham defence. He takes on his defender one-vs-one with the rest of the Fulham back line mindful of their own jobs…
Ngumoha cuts inside and curls it into the far corner.
Four minutes later, he gets the ball in the same position, and this time the Fulham defenders decide to come across and block his sight of goal.
As a result of this, Mo Salah is free at the back post…
…and Ngumoha finds him for the killer second goal.
The second time around, Fulham defenders were so concerned about stopping Ngumoha, they left Salah free. That proved to be Liverpool’s path to goal.
How Diomande creates space
3DR18JJ Leipzig, Poland. 15th Feb, 2026. Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig seen during the Bundesliga match between RB Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg at Red Bull Arena. Final score RB Leipzig 2 : 2 VfL Wolfsburg. (Photo by Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/Sipa USA) Credit: Sipa US/Alamy Live News
3DR18JJ Leipzig, Poland. 15th Feb, 2026. Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig seen during the Bundesliga match between RB Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg at Red Bull Arena. Final score RB Leipzig 2 : 2 VfL Wolfsburg. (Photo by Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/Sipa USA) Credit: Sipa US/Alamy Live News
With his freakishly productive dribbling, Diomande routinely commands this sort of attention.
Here, in a Bundesliga game vs. Dortmund, he’s in a similar position on the left, and Dortmund double up on him rather than tracking the support run made by his full-back.
Even with Diomande marked two-on-one, the rest of the defence is still watching him, meaning nobody is tracking the movement of Christoph Baumgartner into the box…
Diomande skips inside and fires a low cross which Baumgartner converts.
Here’s a similar example from the right wing.
Even with practically all 11 players in the box, Heidenheim are only looking at Diomande, leaving David Raum unmarked on the far side…
Diomande cuts inside, finds the pass and Raum thumps it home…
The Diomande dilemma is a nightmare for defences: you can’t leave him one-on-one because he’ll get past you, but when you focus on him, you leave a free man elsewhere.
In Liverpool’s case, that free man could be Isak, Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike or now Victor Munoz – players who love to attack vertically and at pace.
Yan Diomande of Cote d'Ivoire during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E match between Ecuador and Ivory Coast at Philadelphia Stadium on June 14th, 2026. (Photo by Riquelve Nata/Sports Press Photo)
Yan Diomande of Cote d'Ivoire during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E match between Ecuador and Ivory Coast at Philadelphia Stadium on June 14th, 2026. (Photo by Riquelve Nata/Sports Press Photo)
Last season, those players were operating in a context where opponents felt comfortable defending them, sitting deep to deny space and lower the intensity of the game.
Diomande changes that. He forces defenders to pay attention and when they’re looking at him, they are not looking at anyone else.
For Liverpool, that quality is worth £90 million – or even more.
Leipzig, Germany. 21st July, 2022. Soccer: Test matches, RB Leipzig – FC Liverpool at the Red Bull Arena. Liverpool’s coach Jurgen Klopp shakes hands with Leipzig’s Konrad Laimer. Liverpool won with 0:5. Credit: Jan Woitas/dpa/Alamy Live News
Leipzig, Germany. 21st July, 2022. Soccer: Test matches, RB Leipzig – FC Liverpool at the Red Bull Arena. Liverpool’s coach Jurgen Klopp shakes hands with Leipzig’s Konrad Laimer. Liverpool won with 0:5. Credit: Jan Woitas/dpa/Alamy Live News