Reports in Portugal are tipping Liverpool to make a January move for Porto winger Luis Díaz.
The 24-year-old has been playing a starring role at the Dragão this season, with the exception of the 5-1 defeat to Liverpool!
Díaz is a regular starter for Colombia and was a key player for Los Cafeteros in this summer’s Copa America, finding himself alongside Neymar and Lionel Messi in the Team of the Tournament.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight Show, we asked Goal’s Neil Jones about the chances of Liverpool making a bid for Díaz in January.
Neil said:
“He’s doing well. He played against Liverpool in the Champions League; he’ll probably play against Liverpool on Wednesday. He was quite strongly linked with Everton in the summer. Everton wanted to make a deal for him late in the transfer window, looking at about £20-25 million, which is buttons in the modern wide-forward world.
I haven’t heard that Liverpool are mad keen on him. I think he is one that’s got a Premier League move in him, Wolves will be surely sniffing around.
It would be a bit of surprise if he was to go from being close to an Everton move in the summer to going to Liverpool. He’s a good player, he’s got goals in him, he’s got speed, he’s got skill, he’s got a decent reputation from the Portuguese league. I’m not convinced it’s a goer yet.”
Díaz is clearly a player with some pedigree. He has performed well for Porto this year, scoring 11 goals in 16 games. He was also joint-top scorer in the 2021 Copa America alongside Leo Messi. There is a case for Liverpool making a move in January to try and minimise the negative impact of losing both Sadio Mane and Mo Salah to the AFCON.
The January transfer window tends to be a quiet one for Liverpool, with only Taki Minamino, Marko Grujic and Virgil Van Dijk arriving for a fee across the six years of Jurgen Klopp’s reign. This suggests it would be a surprise if the Reds go into the market this winter. The LFC brains trust have been aware they were losing two-thirds of their first-choice front three for a long time, so it would be unlikely for them to spend serious money, unless it has been planned for a long time.
The other thing to consider is that if Liverpool have designs on winning one or both of the Premier League and Champions League, should they be looking at a player that only six months ago was considered at the level of the likes of Everton and Wolves?
