Jurgen Klopp believes Luis Diaz “already looks like a Liverpool player” after an impressive Premier League debut against Leicester City. The Colombian international started on the left of a front three in place of Sadio Mane, who is resting following a successful Africa Cup of Nations, and the new £50m signing caught the eye in the 2-0 victory. Diaz could have marked his debut with a couple of goals had it not been for an excellent performance from Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and Klopp was delighted with what he saw from the new addition.
Jurgen Klopp said: “He looks at home already? That is exactly the impression he made in training, so we thought come on, let’s give it a try. When we saw him play for Porto we thought that is exactly what we want him to do as well. On top of that he looks like a really smart football player and has obviously watched Liverpool a lot. We never try to overload a new player with too much information in the first week and give them too much on what we want them to do, but when we look at it, he already looks like a Liverpool player. In the last few minutes when he came on against Cardiff and now [against Leicester] the situation was made for it. Sadio came home [from Senegal] last night and is probably still in bed and Mo Salah, after four times playing 120 minutes [for Egypt], it was clear he would not start. So that was the situation and Luis obviously enjoyed the game.”
The victory reduced the gap between leaders Manchester City to nine points with a game-in-hand to be played at home to Leeds later this month, but Klopp steered clear of making any bold statements about hauling back Pep Guardiola’s men.
Graham Potter added: “I am not sure we are in a position to put them on our toes but I am not sure that is important now to be honest. Even if we have no chance to catch them, we would still try to have the best possible season for us and we have to win our games. This football club is massive and I can see that. It is always the same situation. Since I have been here I have never seen a game where people say: ‘yes, you can lose that one.’ So it is always the same situation; there is a game we put on the shirts and we have to win it. It doesn’t work out all the time. It was really important to win because there is not only Man City to catch, there are a lot of teams behind us who want to catch us and get closer so that is a very important task as well.”
