Liverpool boss Arne Slot makes honest Luis Diaz admission about last season under Klopp

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has acknowledged that although Luis Diaz’s goal tally last term wasn’t quite up to the expected mark, the Colombian winger seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch.

Diaz faced very challenging personal issues last season, with his parents having been kidnapped in Colombia last October. His father was finally freed after being held for 13 days.

Despite the harrowing ordeal back home, Diaz notched up 13 goals across all competitions, but only eight were scored in the Premier League.

However, he’s recently hit a rich vein of form with five goals in his last four league outings, trailing only Manchester City’s Erling Haaland in the goalscoring charts. And in a Sky Sports interview earlier this week, he lauded Slot as a “spectacular” coach.

Downplaying his role in Diaz’s resurgence, Slot said: “It’s difficult for me to judge because I wasn’t here last season. It’s still a small sample size we are talking about and I said before when it comes to us winning quite a lot of games until now, almost all the teams we have faced have been in the bottom half of the table.

“He scored eight league goals last season. For me he was someone who could score a goal and eight is, for his quality, not of his standard. Then I think he comes back to his normal situation. Maybe he was a bit unlucky last season but a player of his quality will always score a lot of goals every season.

“We train on a daily basis trying to get them as close as we can in certain situations and help in the best possible way where to position themselves and what to do in certain situations. But it is mainly in the last third of the pitch the quality of the player and the finishing he has and I think he always had this.”

Slot’s squad possesses an incredible depth of attacking talent, with the team boasting two players for each forward spot. The Reds’ attacking force has netted 15 out of a total of 18 goals so far this season.

Diaz is currently leading the charge with five, closely followed by Mohamed Salah with four across competitions, while Diogo Jota tallies at three, Cody Gakpo has two, and Darwin Nunez has chalked up one.

Slot faces the pleasant challenge of managing game time among a squad brimming with talent. “That’s the positive thing about playing so many games, these players will always play a lot of games,” he added.

“I think they understand they can’t play every game unless it’s absolutely necessary to keep them fit and sharp and to keep them ready to perform like they do.

“As long as they accept the situation as it is, and that is what they are doing at the moment because they have good numbers and I see them smile a lot as well, then it’s a very positive thing for us.”

And for an additional boost, goalkeeper Alisson Becker is set to make a comeback for the trip to Wolves after sitting out the last two matches with a hamstring issue.