It’s always interesting to watch footage of players going through their paces in pre-season. Are there any hints about how they will perform in the new campaign, or signs of any tactical shifts which the manager is looking to implement?
Of course, clubs are unlikely to reveal any grand plans they wish to unleash in competitive matches. Forewarned is forearmed, after all. But a brief video Liverpool shared on their club Twitter account certainly gave a reminder of a previously unheralded skill of one of their players.
The caption read “Just Luis Diaz doing Luis Diaz things”, with the Colombian at the centre of the action in the clips. He was first shown curling the ball into the net from the edge of the penalty area, before sliding in at the back post for a tap-in.
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While it would be foolish to read too much of anything into what occurs in a training session, it’s hard not to wonder if we’ll see more of what unfolded after that. With the ball at his feet, Diaz spun away from his marker into space before laying the ball off to Sepp van den Berg out on the right.
The Dutch defender than picked out Diaz with a cross which the Reds’ number 23 headed into the back of the net. It was this final part of the highlights reel which was most interesting...
Trent Alexander-Arnold has provided 45 Premier League assists across his career to date. He will no doubt be challenging Andy Robertson to a little wager, to see if he can get ahead of the Scot (who is currently on 49) before the end of 2022/23.
One area in which Alexander-Arnold already has the edge is in the creation of headed goals. He has set up 23 strikes which were converted in this manner, half of his total and five more than his colleague on the opposite flank. It’s reasonable to think he can set up plenty of goals in this manner for Diaz, and not just because van den Berg managed to from a Trent-like position in an afternoon kickabout at Kirkby.
They already have linked up for one such goal, in Liverpool’s 3-2 victory against Villarreal. Diaz has also broken his heading duck in the Premier League, showing immense bravery in the face of flying Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez in a win on the south coast.
While the assist for that goal came from Joel Matip, the centre-back’s diagonal pass from the right flank ensured his delivery had more than a hint of Alexander-Arnold about it. A header in the conventional sense it was not, a classic example of a goal by Klopp’s Liverpool it most certainly was.
In Diaz, Trent will have someone who can take advantage of his sublime crossing ability. His total of three headed goals in the 2021/22 Primeira Liga may not sound huge, but only four men (one of whom was Darwin Nunez) got more, and the former Porto winger only made 18 appearances.
Most interesting is that two of his efforts in Portugal were very similar to his strikes against Brighton and in training this week: a long pass towards the centre of the box, and a cross from the right to the back post area. These look to be repeatable runs and actions which Diaz should be able to use to his benefit this season.
He may need to. Over his last four seasons in England, Sadio Mane scored more headed goals in the league than any other Liverpool player. Nunez, with six headers converted in league and Europe last season, should pick up some of the slack.
Diaz is likely to get more starts than his fellow South American, though, at least initially. With Alexander-Arnold to work with, he should be able to score far more important headers than those which appear in training videos on social media.
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