Jurgen Klopp explains plan for phased Luis Diaz return
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will take a ‘step by step’ approach with Luis Diaz in order to build the winger’s match sharpness after missing most of the season so far through injury.
Diaz, who made such an impact when he first arrived at Liverpool in the second half of last season, played his first minutes (nine of them, to be precise) since October when he came off the bench towards the end of Monday night’s 6-1 thrashing of Leeds.
The former Porto star was absent for more than 30 games in all competitions due to a knee problem and has been sorely missed, particularly following the summer sale of Sadio Mane.
“Luis is back. He's now lacking rhythm, which is normal, a bit of sharpness, but that's normal as well,” Klopp reflected following the player’s cameo.
The issue now is trying to get Diaz back into the form he was in last season when he racked up seven direct goal involvements in his first 13 Premier League outings. But it has to be through game time.
“In training sessions, you cannot get there to the final degree of sharpness, so we now try to just help him step by step back really into the team, give him minutes,” Klopp explained. “It's just nice to see him play, to be honest. We missed him so long, so it's just nice to see him being involved again.”
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The victory over Leeds was Liverpool’s first in the Premier League since the 7-0 hammering of Manchester United in early March, going four league games without a win in between.
The Reds have struggled to string runs of wins together throughout this season and Diogo Jota, who scored his first Premier League goals in more than a year against Leeds, has called for consistency.
“I think this season we had great results, great wins and we didn’t really follow that. So hopefully this time we can go on a run and win pretty much all the games,” he said.
"We need to believe,” he said of catching the top four. “While it’s possible, we need to believe. But we can only do that by winning games. Certainly, today was a step in the right direction.”
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