What Arne Slot told Luis Diaz in private is very telling after first six Liverpool games
Luis Diaz looks a man transformed after Liverpool’s near-perfect start to the 2024/25 campaign.
Perhaps it all boils down to the relatively generous opening fixture schedule, with the Reds yet to face a side that finished higher than eighth in the Premier League last term.
That most certainly needs to be taken into account, as Arne Slot noted in his pre-Wolves presser comments (via liverpoolfc.com): “It’s still a small sample size that we are talking about. I said before also when it comes to us winning quite a lot of games that until now we’ve faced almost all teams [that] are in the bottom [half] of the table.
“Of course we expect [Manchester] United to be on the top of the table in the end, maybe not on top, but in the top of the table, so there’s still a lot for us to prove.
“Maybe the fixture list helped us by this amount of goals the forwards scored. Let’s see if we can keep scoring so many goals if the fixture list is getting harder and harder, starting tomorrow in a difficult away game against Wolves.”
Facing the bottom half of the table isn’t always plain sailing, of course, as the Dutch head coach discovered early on with a poor 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest
You still have to win your battles and the standard of England’s top-flight remains, for the most part, more challenging in direct comparison to Europe’s top five leagues.
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The Colombian international has struck the back of the net five times and grabbed one assist (all coming in the Premier League) in six appearances this term.
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How has Arne Slot managed to improve Luis Diaz’s numbers?
The answer seems obvious but has, evidently, been rather effective in boosting Luis Diaz’s numbers on the pitch. Low-quality opposition or not, you can’t argue with the results.
“Through individual analysis meetings and time spent on the training field, Slot and his staff have worked closely with Diaz to try to get him into more dangerous positions where he can hurt teams,” James Pearce and Andy Jones reported for The Athletic.
“There’s been less of cutting inside from the left flank and shooting from the edge of the box. They have encouraged him to get himself between the posts more often, so it is no coincidence that his expected goals per shot has risen from 0.13 to 0.19.”
Getting our No.7 closer to goal means he’s automatically having more opportunities to score – and he’s taking them.
It explains why our left-sided winger’s non-penalty xG stats (courtesy of FBref) have risen notably from an average of 0.41 in 2023/24 to 0.63 this season. It’s his highest recorded figure on FBref, barring a rating of 0.69 secured at Porto in the 2021/22 campaign.
His goals per shot have likewise undergone a renaissance as a result, climbing from 0.09 last term to a recorded career-high of 0.38.
Perhaps it will all even out across the season, as Pearce and Jones understandably suggest is possible.
Only time will tell.
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