Colombia ace fires up Reds vanguard
AS he lay in Tariq Lamptey’s wake early in the game, Luis Diaz looked pleadingly at referee Mike Dean.
The Colombian wanted a free-kick for the full-back’s robust but perfectly legal challenge, one he’d have been granted during his time in Portugal, but one which would never be forthcoming here.
Diaz (alongside Lamptey, above) was back on the deck again soon after – this time properly flattened by Brighton keeper Robert Sanchez.
The Liverpool man had nipped in ahead of Sanchez to head home Joel Matip’s perfectly weighted pass… and was absolutely clattered for his troubles.
When he looks in the mirror this morning, Diaz might see a bruise or two on that roguish face looking back at him.
And you get the feeling the in-yer-face, high-octane and highly entertaining way he likes to play his football means there’ll be plenty of bloody noses in the weeks and months ahead as he continues his acclimatisation to English football.
Metaphorically at least, however, the 25-year-old is going to dish out many more than he suffers himself as he duffs up defences the length and breadth of the country – and across the continent, too.
What an addition he is proving to be to an already tantalising forward line.
And you have to wonder what Mo Salah could possibly find elsewhere that would be more enticing than staying at Anfield for a couple more years, at least to see what heights he and Diaz, Sadio Mane and Diogo Jota can hit together. Their goals here at the Amex moved the Reds to three points behind leaders Manchester City.
And who would bet against them finding the net enough times between them to leapfrog Pep Guardiola and Co by the end of the season?
Not many at this stage. Salah’s goal was another piece of history for him and his club as their 2,000th in Premier League history.
But whether or not there will be many more chapters of their story to write remains to be seen, given the progress, or lack thereof, of contract talks between player and club since December.
Of course, the finances of such deals are hugely important and Salah is right to hold out for as much as he can get and for as much as he feels he is worth.
But he must also ask where he will find anything better than the good thing he is already on to from a footballing sense.
Perhaps Real Madrid is the only place abroad right now and the prospect of forming a partnership with Kylian Mbappe would naturally float any player’s boat.
But winning La Liga with Real hardly compares to winning the Premier League with Liverpool and would he really have a greater chance of lifting the Champions League again in Madrid than on Merseyside?
No, absolutely not.
But truly great teams win trophies repeatedly and, with Diaz on board and with Alisson and Virgil van Dijk still looking after matters at the back, there’s no reason why this group can’t push themselves even closer to the great Liverpool side of the late Seventies and early Eighties.
Closing the gap fully won’t be easy, of course, but these boys are so good that if Klopp can keep Diaz and Salah and the rest of the gang they could give it a seriously good go.