The signing of Luis Diaz is certainly an exciting one.
It is an area where myself and a lot of fans and myself agreed where back-up was required.
Origi has done well for us over the years when coming on as a substitute but is unfortunately injured far too often. The same could be said for when Shaqiri was here.
As for Minamino, you can’t knock him too much. But we still need more firepower.
Even when Origi goes, it’s an area we need to work on in the summer as we rely on the main starters time and time again. We need to have good options from the bench.
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I’ve only seen Diaz in action a few times, but he did impress when we faced Porto earlier on this season. Liverpool will have done their due diligence on him and he must be a good lad off the pitch and in the dressing room. We will wait and see how he fares. The fact that he can play in the Champions League is another bonus.
What this transfer should do is raise the standards around the club.
I fully expect him to have the same impact on Mane that Tsimikas has had on Robertson regarding maintaining his starting place.
Mane was doing really well on the right hand side before Salah arrived and had made that spot his own since switching from Southampton. Once Salah arrived in 2017, he then took that place on the right and Mane swapped sides.
In the case of Diaz, I don’t think Klopp will throw him straight in. He will be on the bench to push them to begin with. He will want to make an immediate impact whenever he comes on the pitch as a substitute and could even feature in this weekend’s FA Cup game. It’s a good dilemma for Klopp to have in the first game back.
The likes of Firmino, Mane and Salah won’t be worrying about Diaz’s arrival as it is all about the strength of the squad. I keep going on about what Man City have done over the last few years of building their squad up and up and up, and Chelsea have done the same. You’ve got to have a strong bench to keep up with them.
In the summer, there’s going to have to be a couple more signings to freshen things up again.
We’ve not done it for 18 months now. While there’s money going out, you can guarantee that Liverpool will get the money in from certain players.
Harry Wilson was sold in the summer to Fulham and there are other players who will help to balance the books. Looking ahead, we still need a striker and potentially even another one.
Carvalho blow is disappointing but not disastrous
Fabio Carvalho looks the like real deal, so it was a shame we could not wrap up this transfer on deadline day.
Liverpool missing out on signing him will also alert other teams to try and take advantage of the situation, but there is still an awfully good chance he will end up at Anfield.
Carvalho is likely to have the pick of four or five clubs in the summer when his contract is up due to the performances he has been putting in for Fulham.
If he doesn’t choose to come to Liverpool, he’s not a Liverpool player. If he wants to come, that’s absolutely brilliant.
