It’s been a long six months since Luis Diaz last played for Liverpool.
The Colombian was a revelation at Anfield after joining the Reds midway through last season in a deal worth up to £49m from FC Porto. He would take just 10 minutes to claim an assist from the bench on his debut against Cardiff City, even if Opta don’t recognise it, as he wasted no time at all in exciting Kopites and getting them off their seats.
A first goal would follow in only his second start for the club against Norwich City, while he’d been a Liverpool player less than a month by the time he got his hands on his first piece silverware courtesy of a League Cup final win over Chelsea at Wembley. Caoimhin Kelleher would claim the headlines courtesy of the penalty shootout victory, but the forward had been his side’s standout player.
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The Reds were nine points behind runaway league-leaders Man City at the time of Diaz’s arrival, having already slowly started to claw back at what had grown to be a 14-point deficit, albeit with Jurgen Klopp’s men boasting two games in hand, a few weeks prior.
Come the end of the season, he had six goals and five assists from 26 appearances, including vital strikes in the Champions League against Benfica and Villarreal, as well as Premier League efforts against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Helping inspire Liverpool’s unprecedented quadruple charge, he’d lift the FA Cup in May, only to miss out on the Premier League title by a solitary point on the final day of the campaign before losing to Real Madrid in the European Cup final in Paris.
Where once Sadio Mane had been untouchable on the Reds’ left-flank, Diaz made the position his own with the Senegalese moved central as a result during the final months of his Liverpool career.
Such form would continue for the Colombian into this season, even as the Reds struggled for consistency. Liverpool’s star player during the early months of the campaign, he would net stunning solo-efforts against Crystal Palace and Napoli, as well as a brace against AFC Bournemouth, with his record standing at four goals and three assists from 12 appearances before suffering an untimely knee injury against Arsenal in October.
Originally pencilled in to return to action in December, he would return to training during the Reds’ mid-season winter camp in Dubai only to suffer a setback after a couple of sessions. It was then decided he needed to undergo surgery.
“I can tell you the two sessions he had with us in Dubai at the training camp it was like, ‘Oh my god, how good is that?’” Klopp recalled last month. “Then he was injured again.”
Liverpool have missed Diaz, no doubt about that. They might have signed Cody Gakpo in January while Darwin Nunez is flourishing on the left, but neither enjoyed quite the same explosive impact as the Colombian.
Now set to return to team training this week, having been spotted in an individual session prior to the Reds’ trip to Real Madrid, the forward will be looking to make up for lost time.
In truth, it would be something of a surprise if Diaz could replicate his instant impact after joining the club. Six months on the sidelines is a significant absence, especially after undergoing knee surgery.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s trips to Man City and Chelsea before a home clash with Arsenal in their first week of action following the March international break is a baptism of fire, and then some, to say the least for the returnee. As a result, you would perhaps expect to not see the best of the 26-year-old until next term, with the forward then benefitting from a full pre-season.
But if Klopp’s seven-word reaction to his previous attempted return is anything to go by, maybe Diaz can explode into life once again. His manager has certainly backed him to make an impact before the end of the season, at least.
“It’s a different situation to [when he came in] last year. He came here [and] he [had] played all of the games for Porto pretty much,” Klopp said last month when discussing Diaz’s return. “Now he is out with an injury for the second time.
“When he’s back he will be really good and very impactful, of course. That’s clear, [but] how quickly I don’t know. We have to see, that’s the big challenge in these moments – there’s no time for being patient but you have to be patient.
“So, we will see, but I am positive about him, that he has a good chance to have a real impact in like 10, 11 or 12 games maybe. Let’s see how long it exactly takes.
“I think it is estimated maybe warming up next week with the team and stuff like this and then, maybe a week later, being in team training. That would be cool.
“You always have to wait. As I said, today I saw it – a very intense session with a lot of changes of direction and stuff like this. If there is no reaction to that and he can make the next step then I think he is not too far away.”
Now set to return to team training, Diaz is about to take the next step to a competitive return. And with Liverpool needing another shot in the arm, as he delivered last year, ahead of a big final 12 games of the season if they are to qualify for next season’s Champions League, it hasn’t come a moment too soon.
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