With the forthcoming World Cup occurring in the middle of the 2022/23 Premier League season, club football fans will keep a close eye on any of their team’s players who will be featuring.
One man who looks set to miss out though is Liverpool new boy Luis Diaz.
His Colombia side are five points adrift of the automatic qualification places and four shy of the inter-confederation play-off spot with two games left to play.
Their cause was not aided by their 1-0 defeat in Argentina on Tuesday evening, with Lautaro Martinez’ goal settling the match.
READ MORE: What Luis Diaz signing means for Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and other Liverpool strikers
While Diaz was unable to influence the result, it was not for a lack of trying. He won the most duels, completed the most dribbles and suffered the most fouls of any player ( per Fotmob ).
As impressive as that is, more notable was the fact that Diaz was directly involved in both of Colombia’s shots on target.
For the first, he carried the ball towards the penalty area and played it to Miguel Borja for what would prove to be their side’s only clear-cut chance of the game.
Shortly afterwards, in first half stoppage time, Diaz had a shot which was cleared off the line. Liverpool’s recent £49m couldn’t have done much more to help his team.
But while he was unsuccessful in turning the tide in Colombia’s favour, Diaz did at least demonstrate his best qualities, particularly when setting up the clear-cut chance.
When his move from Porto was confirmed, OptaJoe shared some interesting stats regarding his abilities when carrying the ball.
Diaz has had the most shot and goal involvements following ball carries (which are defined as “the player moving the ball five metres or more”) in the Primeira Liga this season.
When looking at a chart which compares his influence on this front to other players in Portugal, it’s clear that the Reds’ new number 23 has been streets ahead of the competition.
Using data from Opta’s The Analyst website, we can also see how Diaz’ carry figures match up to those of the best players in the Premier League.
The Colombian had 46 carries which ended with him either taking a shot (for 27 of them) or creating a chance for a colleague (19).
Allan Saint-Maximin (with 48) is the only player in England with a higher total this season, and only seven players topped Diaz’ efforts across the whole of the 2020/21 campaign.
And on a ‘per 90 minutes played’ basis, Liverpool’s latest signing is top. His average of 2.75 puts him ahead of Jack Grealish last season (2.47) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (2.42) in 2021/22, the top Premier League players for each of the last two years.
Diaz total of shots after carries in a half a season with Porto was only topped by nine men in England over the entirety of last season, and once again he is ahead of them all on a pro-rata basis.
While not leading the way for chances created per 90 minutes, Diaz’ total would still put him joint-seventh among the Premier League elite across the last two seasons (and as an aside, Sadio Mane from 2020/21 is fourth in this particular table).
While underlying performance is hugely important, the actual output from the Colombian winger has been truly stunning.
Ten of his carries in the Primeira Liga have led to goals, which is one more than Heung-Min Son managed when amassing the most last season, and twice as many as anybody has managed so far in 2021/22.
Or to put it another way, Diaz’ has recorded one more in 18 appearances than Mohamed Salah has managed since the start of last season.
It will naturally be hard to replicate these figures in the Premier League, which is of a higher standard than football in Portugal.
But any Liverpool supporters tuning in to Colombia’s defeat to Argentina will certainly have caught a glimpse of arguably Diaz’ most potent strength.
