Luis Diaz is The Truth

A butterfly flaps its wings in north London and a Colombian winger in Portugal ends up on Merseyside.

Luis Diaz's £49m (£37.5 million plus add-ons) arrival from Porto towards the end of the January transfer window was quite a surprise for the Liverpool faithful. The Reds' transfer strategy has been accused of being somnolent over the last few transfer windows, but the fact that Liverpool snatched Luis Diaz from right under the nose of Tottenham gave the move a whole new twist.

Diaz has taken to life on Merseyside like Will Smith's right hand to Chris Rock's cheek.

There's been no settling-in period. No growing pains. Just lightning in a bottle.

Which is curious, considering most Liverpool signings need at least six months to get accustomed to Jurgen Klopp's intense system.

It's not just about the hard yards at Liverpool, but which player to press, when to press, and how to press, in addition to the ins and outs of how to link up with members of arguably the most lethal front three in the Premier League.

There were some doubts, of course, over how long Diaz would take to settle in.

Ten minutes. He took all of ten minutes in his first Liverpool appearance to set up Takumi Minamino in a 3-1 FA Cup win over Cardiff City.

"With Luis, where it has been really special is that when we saw him, we knew that he would fit in immediately," Klopp told Adam Bate in an interview with Sky Sports. "That is really difficult usually, but because he did not have to change, that is why we have a really confident boy here."

Amen to that.

Having hoisted the Carabao Cup, Liverpool still have three major trophies to fight for - the Premier League, Champions League and the FA Cup. How much does the Diaz factor boost their chances of adding another trophy to the famed Champions Wall at Anfield?

Talk of a quadruple is farfetched at best, but let's rein it in for a second and bask in the glow of Diaz's sensational start to his Liverpool career.

This is a winger who blends the aesthetics of Joga Bonito football with the relentlessness of a Jurassic Park velociraptor on the hunt.

Remember this scene in the first Jurassic Park movie? Where the velociraptor fogs up the glass while hunting the two children?

Well, that's kinda how Diaz approaches pressing, rarely going Commando, rather waiting for a loose-ish ball to present an opportunity.

Diaz's 9,822(ish) scouting reports claim he's some blend of Mo Salah (cutting in to score), Firmino (close control, kinda-sorta-flashy dribbling) and Sadio Mane (1v1 tendency, preaching that Grit and Grind gospel from minute one to minute 90).

We're yet to see all of those traits manifest themselves, but if this is Luis Diaz simply playing on instinct barely three months into his Liverpool career, Klopp's rotation of that frontline could be scary hours in their quest for major honours this season.

And this is without even taking into account his in-game relationship with the Liverpool full-backs.

Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold are right up there with the best full-back pairings in Europe, and while multiple scouting reports have predicted that the Colombian will link up well with Robertson (Diaz and Robertson's endurance and stamina on the same wing is borderline illegal), it's his connection with Alexander-Arnold that could be the real showstopper.

Diaz has a sweet-as-maple-syrup first touch, and Alexander-Arnold has an even sweeter cross-field delivery on long balls. That linkup could unlock a whole new level in both players' abilities going forward, considering Diaz is adept at turning defenders inside out and has a lethal shot to go with that sauce.

The fact that Diaz is 25 years old and Alexander-Arnold is *checks notes* 23 (really!?!?) is simply cash money. They're in that Goldilocks spot where their peak years are ahead of them, but they're already outrageously good at their day jobs.

Liverpool fans after Diaz's January arrival

Diaz has come a long way from La Guajira, one of Colombia's poorest regions.

He's now battling for a spot in a technicolour front three that boasts two Ballon d'Or hopefuls (Salah and Mane), a prolific hitman (Diogoal Jota), and the man who, according to Klopp, plays "12 different instruments" in Liverpool's orchestra (Roberto Firmino).

Jurgen Klopp is still under contract for two more seasons, and Liverpool have a supremely talented young core to smoothen the transition from the current crop. It hasn't been the easiest of rides for the Liverpool faithful, but here they are, talking up chances of a quadruple, no matter how faint.

Luis Diaz will tag along on that quest for immortality, dancing and dazzling in a Liverpool shirt.

As for the question of why Diaz has slotted so seamlessly into that pyrotechnical front three, well, the answer is simple.

He got that dawg in him.

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Colin D'Cunha

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