Luis Diaz has won the League Cup twice, the FA Cup and is now a Premier League champion. However, despite playing a key role in the 2024/25 title success, his long-term Liverpool future is still up for debate.
The Diaz that kicked off the start of the season was the real deal. This was a high octane, full-frontal, all-guns-blazing Diaz, the Colombian street footballer playing with wild abandon while holding an implicit recognition that he was better than his each and every marker.
After a restorative summer, and shedding the weight of the world from his shoulders following the wild event of his father being taken hostage by a guerrilla group, Diaz looked like a man renewed and reinvigorated.
Within the first three games, Diaz had set down a white-hot marker and his brace in the early season meeting with Man United was the lighting of a torch, signifying that Liverpool under the new regime were about to be a serious force.
Deft touches, quick interchanges, thinking five steps ahead of everyone; Diaz’s link-up with Mo Salah and first-time hit to sink Erik ten Hag’s lost boys in their own backyard really stirred the soul and got many of us pondering whether this would be his major breakout campaign.
LUIS DIAZ 2024/25
Started: 38 (All competitions)
On as a substitute: 12
Goals: 17
Assists: 8
Overall Season Rating: 8.2
Was this Diaz’s major breakout campaign?
Well, not exactly.
Let’s not get it wrong, Diaz was a joy to watch this season and vital at various junctures, but the man from Barrancas blew hot and cold in terms of his game-winning capabilities.
Following the early international break, in which he took his sizzling form to the global stage, Diaz needed a few games back in the red shirt before rediscovering his groove – and boy was it rediscovered.
When Bournemouth rocked up at Anfield in late September, dizzy from the serotonin hit of some strong early-season form, a Diaz-led Liverpool slapped them firmly back down to earth. Two goals in a 3-0 victory and another man-of-the-match award for the mantlepiece, the fleet-footed firebrand stepped up.
It was much needed reassurance; confirmation that Diaz could rise up and play the role of reliable talisman in the rare absence of Salah’s brilliance.
Slot appeared to have cracked it, with the Colombian finally strapping on the boots of his predecessor Sadio Mane and winning games when others could not.
But then an interlude, and a somewhat recurring theme with Diaz.
A month would tick by before his next goal involvement, albeit a vital assist in the landmark 2-2 away draw against Arsenal, a result which really sent the Reds on their way to serious momentum.
The games in the interim were passable, if not underwhelming for a player of such seemingly limitless capability. Diaz tailed off as Cody Gakpo began to surge, which is one of the blessings of having a stacked squad oozing with Champions League-level talent.
But for those sitting tight for the final breakthrough of Diaz as a bonafide, week-in week-out, consistent world-beater, that wait continues.
Liverpool wise to consider their options
Since his opportunistic signing in January 2022, Diaz has unquestionably developed into a fearsome attacking outlet and taken to the Premier League like a duck to water.
His petrifying of top-flight fullbacks could be made into a feature length YouTube special, though the speed demon himself would admit that he can be often nullified in matches, either physically or tactically.
Liverpool’s £37 million acquisition of the then 25-year-old Diaz was a snip and, as former boss Jurgen Klopp admitted at the time, a product of a long period of scouting and data-crunching.
The Reds knew Diaz had the tools to be a roaring success. A glut of silverware later, including the return of the Premier League title, has proven such.
Yet there still feels like an ‘if’, or a ‘what now’. It doesn’t help that the discussion around the player’s future from both his personal camp and the club itself has set a strange tone.
Diaz clearly loves being at Anfield and is a highly-valued squad member with a close knit group of confidants, comprising the South American unit of Alexis Mac Allister, Darwin Nunez and Alisson.
But with the months on his current deal ticking down and his 29th birthday due in January, it comes as little surprise that the Reds are considering their options regarding a big money sale.
Diaz has done more than enough in a red shirt to prove that, on his day and when he’s feeling it, there are few better attacking wingers on the planet.
Will he drag your team over the line to victory every time Saturday rolls around? No.
Does his status as a breathtaking footballer, still very much in his prime, warrant a possible summer transfer splurge exceeding the £80 million mark? Most certainly.
And it’s why we now have an interesting few weeks and months ahead. Barcelona are long admirers of Diaz and Real Madrid have courted his entourage on previous occasions.
The latest link to emerge comes in the form of Bayern Munich, still smarting from having missed out on Florian Wirtz, while also observing the puzzling exit of Leroy Sane to Galatasaray on a free.
Diaz’s role next season
Next season, Slot will know that new marquee man Wirtz will command a central berth but will also love darting over to the left at every opportunity. It is what he does, and it’s where he feels incredibly comfortable and destructive.
With this in mind, and having a fired-up Gakpo still chomping at the bit for a starting spot, Diaz may soon feel more dispensable than many imagined.
In effect, it feels like a very win-win situation for the Reds. Either a blockbuster, cannot-be-refused bid slides across the table for their 28-year-old Colombian, or Diaz cracks on with another campaign, used in a more interchangeable role with Gakpo and the exciting Wirtz.
Fewer minutes in the legs, given the mileage he will once again be doing with the national team, can be no bad thing providing his fitness remains sharp.
How many teams in world football have a weapon as devastating as Diaz to bring on from the bench? You only need one hand to count.
Diaz hit the stratosphere last season, coincidentally against Wirtz and fellow new Red Jeremie Frimpong, when Bayer Leverkusen came to Anfield and were unceremoniously dissected. A 4-0 scoreline and Diaz’s first hat-trick, along with yet another – you guessed it – man of the match gong.
Diaz was box-office, possessed, so artistically better than his peers, but seven Liverpool games would pass thereafter, with another international break sandwiched in, before another goal contribution was found.
Stepping up in times of struggle
The thing with Diaz, though, and something that makes him all the more remarkable and endearing, is his ability to really step up in times of angst.
For all his indifference and spates of ghosting mid-season, the end of the campaign saw the former Porto man truly answer the call for Slot.
In the 3-1 victory over rock-bottom Southampton in early March – a match in which Slot chose to verbally lay into the entire squad at half-time with the Reds trailing – Diaz led the resurgence immediately from the second half whistle, finding an assist and smashing the Saints black and blue to ensure three points were never in doubt.
He was the best player on the pitch, man of the match again, playing with gritted teeth and the steely expression of a man who was not going to come off second best and humiliated.
As tension truly mounted in the title run-in, Diaz provided the all important assist to ensure Everton were beaten in a slender 1-0 win at Anfield, before going on to find the back of the net against Arsenal as Mikel Arteta’s pretenders afforded the Reds a guard of honour.
Big games, big moments and hard evidence as to why Diaz is so universally adored on Merseyside. Cashing in on him this summer may make a measure of painful sense, but it will absolutely be on Liverpool’s terms if so.
Should said bid not materialise, Liverpool will be graced by the brilliant Barranquero for another two seasons until his contract winds down.
If this is the end, it’s been a pleasure, though it feels like the cauldron of Diaz magic hasn’t quite finished stirring, not just yet anyway.
Best moment: A brilliantly-taken hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen, as he shone in a central role.
Worst moment A disappointing performance in the League Cup final defeat to Newcastle, but he was far from alone.
Role next season He will most likely begin the season’s as Liverpool’s starting left winger, but if a big bid came in from Barcelona, that could all change.
Fan Comments