Carragher on Luis Diaz Form and Liverpool Interest in Anthony Gordon
The ex-Red and current Sky pundit says he thought the club could improve on Diaz over the summer—but that isn’t the case any more.
When Liverpool were linked with a move over the summer for Newcastle left winger Anthony Gordon, it raised eyebrows amongst some Liverpool fans who believed the club already had a superior option at the position in Colombian forward Luis Diaz.
Others, though, saw in Diaz a player who hadn’t ever gotten back to the form he was in after joining the club in January of 2022, with a knee injury in October later that year setting the player back. Former Red and current Sky pundit Jamie Carragher was amongst the latter group—but says Diaz has now proven him wrong.
“When I think about Liverpool I’m thinking, ‘Well where can we improve?’” Carragher said when asked about one of the standouts of the 2024-25 season so far for Arne Slot’s Reds. “Luis Diaz was a player who came in, did really well, he got a couple of knee injuries.
“We hadn’t quite seen the same player in the last 18 months and you were thinking, ‘Okay, we need maybe a little bit of an upgrade there.’ That would’ve been certainly what I was thinking over the summer [but] Luis Diaz I think had a really good summer for Colombia and he’s been one of the best players in the Premier League.”
When legendary manager Jürgen Klopp left the club and Slot arrived, many picked out fellow left winger Cody Gakpo as a player who might benefit—and while he too has been in good form to start the year, few have stood out under the new manager like Diaz.
In fact, probably the only player who could be said to have benefitted more is Ryan Gravenberch, who has broken through as a surprise standout in a midfield six role following the club’s failure to convince Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi to leave behind his boyhood mountains of San Sebastian.
“When you’ve got Luis Diaz in that form, you’re keeping him and you’re not looking to bring anyone else in,” Carragher added. “That’s just a fact. I just think those levels had dropped a little bit. And that may have been to do with the injury.
“It may [also] be to do with a new manager just getting a little bit extra out of someone, that can happen. We’ve seen it with Gravenberch. But the Luis Diaz I’m seeing right now, we need to keep this going, keep this level up, and then you’d be desperate for him to sign a new contract.”
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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