Liverpool’s problems last season, the absence of Luis Díaz was one of the most visible.
The Colombian international was one of the few in the Reds team whose level in 2022/23. didn’t fall in the opening weeks of the 2018 campaign as the team struggled to shake off the cobwebs from the previous 63-game season.
Diaz was a rare bright spot for Jurgen Klopp 12 months ago as his side collapsed in the early stages. That is until a knee injury sustained during a challenge from Arsenal’s Thomas Partey ruined his campaign.
Diaz initially scored in a 3–2 defeat to the Gunners on October 9, but was on the verge of a comeback in December when he broke again during the club’s mid-season World Cup trip to Dubai. That setback required surgery and involved an immediate flight back to Merseyside to go under the knife before he was forced to wait until April for his final return.
“It was a difficult and difficult time for me,” he admits in a conversation with the club’s official matchday program. – It is very frustrating that I cannot be present with the team in every match.
“It’s so hard to see all your teammates playing and you can’t be with them.
This period was really difficult for me, but I tried not to think about things and not pay much attention to the negative things. So that my head doesn’t swim with all these thoughts “It was about work, work and more work so that I could be fully fit and recover; so that when I was 100% again I would be ready to try and help the team.”
He made one more appearance when he came on as a second-half substitute in a 6–1 rout of Leeds United on 17 April, before scoring in a pulsating win over Tottenham later that month.
Diaz was under little pressure on his return, however, with it widely agreed that the former Porto man may not be at his best until he has experienced the full benefits of an injury-free pre-season this season.
With two goals this season against Chelsea and Bournemouth, the £37m signing is finally starting to look more like the player who convinced Klopp to move him from Porto to Anfield in January 2022.
“I feel more and more confident day by day and with every practice,” he adds. “Scoring the other goals has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve worked hard to be fit and to be honest, I feel great – 100% and I’m sure I’ll do a lot to make the fans happy this season.
“I have no doubt about it. I always try to be in the best shape because my game is… well, I always try to do things like score and goals and be happy and satisfied when I play my football. I know that it will be good year.”
Diaz is part of Anfield’s versatile and powerful forward line. Along with Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota, Klopp has a familiar wealth at his disposal, having been responsible for six of Liverpool’s eight goals – and 25 of the team’s last 34 since Diaz’s return from injury.
With three to Diaz’s name, the wide man continues to work on adding aspects to his game in Klopp’s system that will only make the current crop of strikers more formidable. He adds:
“I would say that after being here, I am more intense and more aggressive about myself. Maybe I already developed those things at Porto, because I learned a lot about those aspects there as well. You come to Europe, you. to work much more about those aspects of your game than you have aggressive.
“I’ve also learned a lot about decision-making and being more free when possible. I think I’ve grown both in football and personally, and all that makes me very happy.”
