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Luis Diaz should have been exhausted.
Liverpool and Manchester City had offered up a modern Premier League classic at Anfield, and Diaz had been a prominent presence — marauding up and down the home side’s left flank in an effort to unlock the champions’ defence.
There should have been nothing left in the tank as he picked up the ball in the 81st minute midway inside his own half. Few Liverpool fans would have blamed him had he taken the easy option of belting it away from danger.
But that is not the Luis Diaz way.
Instead, he gambled, risking a potential season-swaying turnover deep in Liverpool territory.
The Colombian carried the ball forward and… just kept going.
Rodri was the first to try to challenge him, with Kyle Walker not far behind.
He wriggled free of both, first from Walker…
… and then leaving Rodri — one of the world’s leading defensive midfielders, and who has not lost a game of club football for over a year — in a heap after being nutmegged and then attempting a last-ditch rugby tackle.
Diaz was left one-on-one with Walker, who was back for more. He squared him up and began to go inside, only to switch direction sharply and beat him down the outside.
The home crowd were with him every step of the way. They rose to their feet in waves, in rhythm with Diaz’s every twist and turn.
It was reminiscent of Andy Robertson relentlessly pressing half of the City team by himself during Liverpool’s 4-3 victory on the same pitch in January 2018. Both represented a moment of pure synergy between player and fans — the only difference was one had the ball and the other didn’t.
It was a symbol of what Diaz has been for Liverpool since the turn of the year. With injuries mounting and absences due to international cup competitions, the 27-year-old has been a near-constant and inexhaustible presence in attack.
Since the start of 2024, only captain Virgil van Dijk has played more minutes than Diaz for Liverpool in their 17 matches across four competitions — and the Dutch centre-back is not expected to do half as much running as him.
Diaz has started their nine Premier League games, the Europa League last-16 first leg against Sparta Prague and all three Carabao Cup matches, including playing the full 120 minutes in the final. His only rest has come in the FA Cup, as a late substitute against Norwich City and an unused one in the next round against Southampton, and for the second leg of the Sparta tie at Anfield on Thursday, where he again stayed on the bench with the contest effectively over already after Liverpool had won 5-1 away.
Against Chelsea at Wembley last month, Diaz played the 30 minutes of extra time running on empty and seemingly only on one functioning leg. Yet, time and again he summoned up a burst of energy to carry his team forward. It is an innate trait that he has: he never stops.
It was the same against City last weekend, during which his performance prompted Gary Neville, the Sky Sports TV co-commentator, to liken him to “a Duracell Bunny” — in reference to the advert where an animated rabbit character powered by the company’s batteries outlasts all the others supplied by those from other manufacturers.
His touch map for that match underlined his willingness to drop into defensive areas (he had 16 touches in his own half) while not losing his attacking intent.
Deep into added time, Diaz was still leading the press…
… and wriggling out of seemingly impossible situations to try to create one last chance.
Here, with three City players surrounding him, Diaz escapes, evades Bernardo Silva’s lunge and finds Mohamed Salah on the edge of the box.
With Salah, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez missing chunks of action this season, the attacking responsibility has largely fallen to Diaz and Cody Gakpo. But while Gakpo has struggled for rhythm and form, Diaz has led from the front and staked his claim for being — on current form, at least — Liverpool’s most important forward.
Diaz’s campaign has not been straightforward — hardly surprisingly, given the emotional toll taken by his father’s kidnapping in Colombia in October. Yet the concern was magnified because his game felt very different to what had made him so impactful for Liverpool since his arrival from Porto in January 2022.
He appeared a yard slower — which could have been related to his two successive knee injuries last season — and often too predictable, repeatedly cutting inside. The dazzling feet, explosive burst and unpredictability were absent.
Those doubts have been quashed, with Jurgen Klopp seeing tell-tale signs of his rejuvenation back in January.
“You can see it in each training session — it’s different,” said the Liverpool manager. “I said when he came in that I never really saw something like that: he cannot not smile when he is on the ball. It was like that in the beginning, but there were a few weeks where I missed that a little bit. But the smile is back, and that’s really good.”
The only questions remain around his lack of a clinical touch. In a five-minute spell around the hour mark last Sunday, three opportunities fell to him and were not taken.
On the first, Diaz was let down by a poor touch after driving forward and linking with Nunez…
The second — and best of the three chances — saw him shoot off target when one-on-one with goalkeeper Stefan Ortega after being played in by Salah.
With that miss probably still on his mind, he then hesitated when played in again by Nunez, allowing Walker to recover…
He had a similar period in the 4-1 home win against Luton Town last month, wasting two big chances early in the game before Liverpool went behind, before recovering to score Liverpool’s third in the second half.
Both games brought comparisons with Sadio Mane, the player Diaz has replaced in Liverpool’s left-forward role.
Diaz has scored 22 goals in his 85 Liverpool appearances, a modest return for somebody with such talent. Mane had 40 in his first 86 games for the club. And the Senegal international was not a composed, clinical finisher when he arrived from Southampton in summer 2016, though he developed into one.
But they are fundamentally different players. Diaz’s play style can often see him operate as a wide midfielder rather than a wide forward, and serve as a facilitator rather than a finisher.
The fact his performance against City last Sunday was not defined by those misses — even if they may come back to haunt Liverpool’s title hopes — highlights the wider role he is playing for the team and the appreciation their supporters have for him.
Having turned 27 in January, Diaz is in his prime and still appears as fresh as he was at the start of the season.
