Jurgen Klopp has explained why he ‘absolutely loves’ Luis Diaz following the Colombian’s return to full fitness recently.
The former Porto winger sustained a serious knee injury during our 3-2 league defeat at Arsenal back in October and only returned to action last month after suffering a relapse of the same injury during our winter training camp in December.
He scored on his return to the starting XI against Spurs recently and our German tactician was keen to explain the qualities that our No. 23 brings to the side.
“Fantastic. We are so excited about it, we were always excited about it,”Klopp told Premier League Productions (as quoted by Liverpoolfc.com) about Diaz’s return to action.
“The thing is, he was out after he got the injury in the Arsenal game – very strange game, by the way – and came back when were in a training camp during the World Cup in Dubai, so we all thought, ‘Finally back.’
“He trained exceptional, absolutely exceptional, and he slipped only a little bit on the grass, felt something, kept going on, everything is fine. After training, ‘Yeah, I feel a little bit. Let’s see.’ Another scan, out for another three months or whatever. Horrible, absolutely horrible.
“He’s a natural player. I love him, absolutely love him. It’s unbelievable.
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“He’s so football smart, moving in the right areas, naturally defending from his position, goal threat, speed, cheeky. Very, very special player, I have to say. We missed him a lot.
“We missed Diogo Jota as well – everybody realised when he came back how good he is. Bobby with a little injury here and there, Darwin [is] new, which is then obviously really difficult to get into a team, especially when you are the finisher of situations. The other boys have to create in a lot of moments – we didn’t create a lot or not enough, or not clear enough.
“There are a few explanations for our situation but you have to take life like it is and make the best of it, and that’s what you do in football as well.”
It’s no surprise to hear Klopp speak so highly of the Colombia international.
His absence was felt massively during the season due to the fact he offers so much quality on the left flank with his pace and direct style of play and when fit he is pretty much one of the first names on the team sheet.
The 26-year-old will be eager to help the team during the final three games of the season as we seek to sneak into the top four.
We have a serious amount of quality at the top end of the pitch and if we can strengthen our midfield options during the summer transfer window there’s no reason why we won’t be competing on all four fronts next term.