When the news broke that Sadio Mane would be leaving Liverpool this summer, there was a sense of both excitement and fear.
Mane had been a mainstay in the team since his move from Southampton in 2016, and was a key reason behind the club’s success. If you were to look back at the six major trophies won in Jurgen Klopp’s tenure, Mane had a big say in all of them in some way.
In hindsight, you could possibly see the writing on the wall when Liverpool signed Luis Diaz in January. Although a more out-and-out winger than Mane, there are definitely similarities between the pair’s respective skill sets.
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The second half of last season saw Klopp try to include both players in his starting line-up. It worked to a large degree, mounting a strong Premier League title challenge and reaching the Champions League final.
Mane was used as a centre-forward more often than not, while Diaz operated in the left-wing position that the Senegalese had made his own in years previously. Opening weekend, though, saw a new era officially begin for the Reds.
With Mane now a Bayern Munich player, Diaz is now the senior left winger at the club. Last Saturday was his first opportunity to show everyone what he could bring to the new-look forward line.
In terms of the result, it wasn’t a good one. A 2-2 draw on the opening day was the first time that Liverpool have dropped points in their first league fixture of a season since 2017.
Diaz failed to score, but that is not the only way to measure the performance of a forward in Klopp’s team. It’s about his work rate, his pressing and his ability to create chances for his team-mates.
If you were to start directly comparing Diaz to Mane then the Colombia international would not come out too favourably on some metricss Mane is the finished article, while Diaz has bags of talent and potential, but is still finding his feet at Anfield.
Even so, there were signs against Fulham that Diaz can have a similar impact on a game as Mane once did for Liverpool. Let’s start with his work off the ball.
Mane was always one of the leaders of the press for Liverpool. Putting pressure on the opposition defence at the top end of the pitch.
Liverpool will want Diaz to gradually have a similar effect as Mane did. Against Fulham, there was evidence of that already coming to pass.
In his final season at Liverpool, Mane managed a 31.6% success rate for pressing (via FBref ). If you compare this to Diaz’s performance against Fulham, he had a success rate of 46.2%.
Admittedly, this is still a small sample size. One game is never enough to judge a player, but it’s certainly a sign that Diaz is heading in the right direction.
The other side of Mane’s game was, of course, scoring goals. And more importantly, from Liverpool’s perspective, creating goals and chances for other players.
Mane was a master at this. Last season he averaged 3.10 shot creating actions per 90 minutes. To put it simply, he created three chances per match on average, either for himself or his team-mates.
For Diaz, against Fulham, this number was zero. Again, it’s still a small sample size so we mustn’t be too harsh with criticism at this stage.
After all, if we look at his impact after signing for Liverpool in January, the numbers are quite different. In just 13 league matches, Diaz averaged 4.6 shot creating actions per 90 minutes.
This is not only a significant improvement on what he managed against Fulham, but also better than Mane’s average. This is the player Liverpool want in the long-term.
Klopp has never been one to judge a player from one game, either in a positive or negative way. The money invested in Diaz is for a long-term project both for the club and the player.
The Colombian’s impact after signing from Porto got everyone excited at what Liverpool’s future forward line could hold. One bad game against Fulham, for everyone, not just Diaz, is not anything to be concerned about.
Even so, there are still signs that Diaz is more than capable of filling the void left by Mane’s departure. As the season goes on, Klopp and co will be hoping, maybe even expecting, the complete player to evolve right before their eyes.
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