Hard running and calculated pressing — Luis Díaz is fitting Liverpool like a glove

Others, like Mohamed Salah, hit the ground running and have never stopped. Judging by initial impressions, Luis Díaz seems intent upon taking residency in the latter group.

The rewards for him could be swift, with Wednesday’s Premier League game against Leeds United offering Liverpool a chance to close in on the leaders, Manchester City, and flex their title credentials.

Come Sunday, the Colombian could mark his first month at the club with a winners’ medal dangling from his neck as Klopp’s side seek to overcome Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

No Liverpool player is ever likely to make his mark quite as quickly as the goalkeeper Adrián. He was signed as a free transfer on August 5, 2019, made his debut four days later when Alisson Becker suffered a calf injury during a game against Norwich City and, by the following Wednesday, had emerged as the hero in the Uefa Super Cup shoot-out success over Chelsea in Istanbul.

John Arne Riise also won the Super Cup, when Bayern Munich were vanquished in August 2001, having made his debut only 12 days earlier. Yet Riise had joined from Monaco earlier in that summer and had a full pre-season to learn how Gérard Houllier wanted him to perform.

Where the impact of Díaz has been so striking is that no acclimatisation has been needed for a player who has, so far, fitted Liverpool like a glove, picking up their patterns of play seamlessly.

Within 48 hours of arriving on Merseyside — his £37.5 million move from Porto had been delayed by international commitments — Díaz’s counterpressing helped to create a goal in the FA Cup win over Cardiff City.

His first strike for the club followed in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Norwich, with his effort ending a sequence of 34 uninterrupted passes, the most for any Liverpool goal in the Premier League since Opta started supplying the data in 2006-07.

Díaz had popped up on the right flank earlier in the move and then darted centrally to burst on to Jordan Henderson’s defence-splitting pass and caress a clipped finish with his left foot beyond Angus Gunn.

That the 25-year-old had started the game operating on the left flank demonstrated his versatility across Liverpool’s front line.

His eye for a goal should not surprise anyone. The demands of playing for Liverpool mean their attackers must contribute both in the creation of chances and in dispatching them.

Díaz claimed 16 goals and six assists in 27 appearances for Porto this season (41 and 19 in 125 appearances during his three seasons with the Portuguese side) and that desire to directly influence matches can already be seen since moving to England.

Despite playing the second-fewest minutes of Liverpool’s regular forwards since his debut, Díaz’s statistics are comparable with Salah, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota and Sadio Mané.

Only Salah has had more touches in the opposition box than Díaz (43 compared with 29) and the Egyptian has played almost an hour longer during the period under scrutiny.

In terms of shots and chances created, Díaz lags behind only Salah, while Mané is the only player in the quintet to have been more successful in his dribbles.

Yet an eye-catching number from Díaz is related to the amount of times he has won possession in the final third of the pitch.

At nine, that is not only more than each of the rest of Klopp’s forward options, but more than the rest of them combined.

Hard running and calculated pressing is central to how Liverpool perform and Díaz’s willingness to do both has quickly endeared him to his teammates.

“In his first training session I saw him flying about and I thought, ‘He’ll be OK here!’ ” Robertson, the left back, said.

It is credit to Liverpool’s recruitment department, headed by Michael Edwards and Julian Ward and benefiting from the expertise of Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter, that the early signs point towards another transfer success.

Credit, too, to Díaz, who has wasted no time in making himself very much at home.

-The Times