DIAZ’S BAND OF BROTHERS
Colombia star’s parents ordeal over, and pal Mac Allister admits: We have to respond like Luis has
THE incredible strength of character displayed by Luis Diaz during his family’s kidnap ordeal has galvanised his Liverpool team-mates.
That is the verdict of Diaz’s pal Alexis Mac Allister.
Diaz’s parents Luis and Cilenis were kidnapped last month by Colombia’s National Liberation Army. His mum was rescued within hours, but his father was held for 13 days before being released on Friday.
Despite all this, Diaz has somehow found the mental reserve to appear twice in four days for the Reds – and was their best player in those games.
Even boss Jurgen Klopp admitted that football was the furthest thing from the minds of all his players, as they rallied around Diaz.
Yet Mac Allister – who occasionally translates for the winger and fellow South American Darwin Nunez in team meetings – believes the spirit shown by his team-mate is the same required by Liverpool as they
look to
bounce back after two miserable performances on the pitch.
Mac Allister said: “The goal at Luton and his performance in Toulouse shows how strong he is, how mature he is.
“Luis has got his family behind him and he is here with us. We’re all so happy because it’s good news – not just for him, but for everyone.
“We were all behind him and everyone was waiting for this news. I’m so very glad for him, he is an amazing guy.
“I’m very close to him. And how he has responded is that, perhaps, dampened the mood within the squad, as Diaz so visibly suffered as the threat to his father’s life grew with every day that passed.
Now, after a poor draw at Luton and an embarrassing loss in Toulouse, they know they have to reflect their teammate’s mental strength, and Mac Allister said: “We have to improve, we have to respond.
“We were not good enough defensively, we missed too many challenges and that is not good enough with a high line.”
Team-mate Harvey Elliott agreed and pulled no punches incredible.” as he said Liverpool simply did
Now, Mac Allister and the rest not deserve the late equaliser in of the Liverpool team want to Toulouse, which was ruled out respond after losing in Toulouse after another VAR farce. – only their second defeat of the The Bulgarian referee actually season, with the first a reverse awarded the goal which would at Tottenham when they had a have made the score 3-3 after goal ruled out through VAR the VAR review, but incompetence. ‘We were all then swiftly
Klopp explained behind him and changed his mind, after that 3-2 everyone was and overturned it Europa League waiting for this’ for a handball by loss that for his entire Mac Allister much squad “it didn’t feel right earlier in the build-up. that you play football in this The Argentine midfielder was moment, but we had to do it, astonished, and admitted: “It hit and the boys found a way”. But my chest first and not my arm, so it’s weird it was given. It’s especially weird because the referee said ‘goal’ first, but 10 seconds later changed his decision.”
But Elliott refused to blame that controversial VAR decision, which goes against UEFA’S own guidelines and was widely condemned by the football world.
He said: “We didn’t deserve to win or even draw. So we’ve got to take it on the chin – we’ll reflect and make sure it doesn’t happen again. “We can’t look for excuses. “The side weren’t really there throughout the whole game and we didn’t deserve to come away with anything.
“So we have to use that as motivation to go out on the weekend to make sure that we put it right – and not the VAR decision.”