This may be turning into a season to forget for Liverpool, but at least one of their former cohort is thriving.
Luis Diaz has fitted in seamlessly at Bayern Munich following his summer transfer: the club already seem to have one hand gripped on yet another Bundesliga title given they are six points clear, and are also top of the Champions League table, with a perfect record of four wins from four ahead of Wednesday’s visit to second-placed Arsenal.
His personal record with Bayern is also excellent. Diaz has 11 goals and five assists in 18 appearances in all competitions — more goal involvements than former team-mates Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo have combined.
Former fans at Anfield are casting envious glances towards Bavaria and wondering whether Liverpool should have told Diaz he was staying put in the summer.
Luis Diaz celebrates Liverpool’s Premier League win in May (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Hindsight is easy, of course.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that when Liverpool agreed a £65.6million fee for Diaz in July, it was widely deemed to be excellent business. And it is hard to make the case otherwise even now: the Colombian was 28, had two years remaining on his contract and — most importantly — wanted to leave. Two offers of a new deal had been turned down and a desire to pursue a new challenge had already been made clear to Liverpool executives 12 months before his eventual exit.
For much of last season, Gakpo and Salah were the regular wide combination that was so crucial to Liverpool’s Premier League success, while Diaz operated in the central role in between them. His exit, though, has left a glaring hole in the champions’ squad depth out wide.
Outside of Gakpo and Salah, head coach Arne Slot can call on Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz to play there but neither would say it was their natural position. With Slot preferring Federico Chiesa as a central option, it leaves 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha as the only alternative.
In their most recent defeat, 3-0 at home against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Gakpo and Salah looked more like their usual selves in the opening half-hour. But later in the game, when ideally Slot would have turned to another experienced winger — either by bringing on a substitute or moving Diaz wide and sending on a striker, as he often did last season — he no longer has that luxury.
If Liverpool were winning and fighting with Arsenal at the top of the table right now, Diaz’s departure would be an afterthought. Their supporters would be delighted to see his early success in Germany, but that’s where the conversation would stop.
However, the combination of Liverpool’s poor form and the extent to which they are missing Diaz’s characteristics has heightened his loss. The same can be said of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s qualities in passing and build-up play: but while the right-back is struggling to impose himself at Real Madrid, Diaz’s fine form makes his absence cut deeper.
What set Diaz apart from the other wingers at Liverpool was his ability to get his team up the pitch and be an outlet, something Slot’s side have lacked this season.
While sometimes it would feel the South American was dropping too deep, he could also carry the ball forward. His burst of acceleration helped him in one-on-one battles against defenders, along with his ability to go either way. He is the opposite of Gakpo, who is a smooth ball-carrier, but Diaz’s scruffier style was just as, if not more, effective.
Diaz’s experience is the polar opposite of Wirtz’s since they swapped leagues. He has adapted immediately to the Bundesliga. Playing in the best team in the league with elite talent helps, but defensive standards in the German top flight are generally lower and it is not as physically demanding.
There were big expectations when Diaz arrived in Munich, given the price tag – one of the largest fees in the club’s history. Wide players joining Bayern have the challenge of being compared to the elite standards set in recent years by Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. So, even though there was little issue with the cost of the transfer, given Diaz was the best such player available on the market, there was a natural pressure when he arrived.
Bayern chief executive Max Eberl presents Diaz to the media (Alexandra Beier/AFP via Getty Images)
Diaz is positioned on the left of Bayern’s attack in a front three with Harry Kane and Michael Olise, with Serge Gnabry in a central role behind them. While there are plenty of rotations between the forwards, Diaz’s position remains the most stable.
He is manager Vincent Kompany’s spark plug. He is a goal threat, either at the back post or from drifting inside, and when Kane drops deep, he and Gnabry will stretch the play and run beyond the defensive line. He and Olise are both encouraged to try and beat their defender when one-on-one, and he also carries a counter-attacking threat.
If anything, the same questions he had at Liverpool have remained. His goal-contributions total always felt like it should be better, and it was improved in his final season as he netted 17 times and registered five assists in 50 appearances in all competitions — both his best totals in a single season at Anfield.
While there has been plenty of output this season, the quality of his finishing has attracted some criticism in Germany. In the same game he scored against Union Berlin from a ridiculously acute angle (so much so that the xG of the shot was 0.03), he also missed an easier chance, which ended up drawing as much attention, given Bayern drew the match 2-2.
His finishing has been scrutinised at other times too, and he also attracted criticism for the wild lunge on Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi which earned him a three-game Champions League ban. So while everyone acknowledges that he’s helped make Bayern better, there’s a sense that there is still room for improvement.
“I’m extremely happy (with the transfer) because of his intensity and his willingness to always be involved in both attack and defence,” Bayern’s sporting director Max Eberl told reporters earlier this season after a game against Koln. “Now you can say, ‘He had a great chance today.’ But he keeps coming back. He made these sprints of 60, 70 metres. Forward, but also backward. And that’s why he’s an absolute asset for us.”
Intensity is the word that defines Diaz as a player. Whether he’s playing well or not, he remains relentless in his efforts to try. He has been essential to Bayern’s press, and arguably the most effective in carrying out Kompany’s plan out of possession.
Compare that to Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk’s comments about his team following the weekend defeat by Forest.
“Overall, we were just not good,” Van Dijk said. “In terms of the battles, challenges, second balls, we were just too rushed. We’re just in a very, very difficult moment, and we have to get out of this.”
Liverpool, somewhat understandably due to the changes in the forward areas, have not pressed as successfully over the past three months as they did last season. Opposition setups have impacted that, with the team’s rolling 10-game average for ball recoveries in the attacking third significantly lower under Slot.
There is no lack of effort from Ekitike, Wirtz or fellow newcomer Alexander Isak when playing in the No 9 and No 10 roles, but there is a lack of impact.
Diaz was at the tip of Liverpool’s pressing spear last season alongside Dominik Szoboszlai, and they formed a formidable duo, setting the tempo for their team-mates to follow.
Often, when the going got tough, Diaz got going. His mentality and energy were infectious. So at a time when Liverpool are failing to mount a response to every setback they encounter, it is no surprise he is being missed.
