Stat of the Match: Luis Díaz Special

Liverpool beat Everton 1-0 thanks to a Diogo Jota goal assisted by Luis Díaz. The Colombian offered so much more besides.

Liverpool battled their way to three points in the latest edition of the Merseyside derby earlier this week. It was a war, as such games frequently are.

If Diogo Jota ending his goal drought was correctly predicted by this stopped clock, Curtis Jones putting in a fine performance as the fourth choice right-back was less anticipated. The player of the match was not really up for debate, though. It was Luis Díaz.

Rather than run through various statistics about the match as a whole as is normal procedure around here, it feels appropriate to give the Colombian some serious love. He did everything, everywhere, all at once.

The great Michael Reid did an excellent job of highlighting the peaks Díaz scaled in terms of box touches, chances created and dribbles. The Reds’ ineffectual crossing was highlighted by Micah Richards on Match of the Day, yet Liverpool’s number seven used one to create his side’s only Opta-defined big chance of the game.

Díaz also topped the standings for accurate final third passes, falling just shy of matching Everton’s tally. For completed efforts ending in the opposition penalty box, it was six apiece.

In discussing the derby on the latest episode of the Distance Covered podcast, I highlighted a couple of other statistics which emphasised how important Díaz was to Liverpool’s ball progression. Digging a little deeper after the recording only made the findings even more impressive.

The initially eye catching statistic was that the 28-year-old made 10 progressive passes and nine progressive carries. He has since been upgraded by one for the latter metric following Opta’s post-match data review.

Hitting double figures for both stats is rare in the Premier League, with an average of fewer than 10 instances per season. The further back in a team a player is stationed gives them an advantage too, as there is more pitch in which they can progress the ball; only 15 different men nominally deemed to be forwards have achieved this feat since the summer of 2017.

Definitions of progressive actions

There’s an amusing quirk to the three Liverpool attackers to make this grade. As well as Díaz in midweek, both Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mané recorded 10+ progressive passes and carries versus Burnley. If you need greater opportunities to move the ball forward, facing a club disinterested in the ball as they have been touched by the hand of Dyche won’t hurt.

The more remarkable number related to how many progressive passes had found their way to Díaz against the Blues. His total of 25 is the joint-fourth most received by a Liverpool player in league or Europe over the past eight years, with the only instance over 27 recorded by Mohamed Salah in a two-hour slug fest with Atletico Madrid.

That same performance is the only one with more progressive involvements in total. On a pro-rata, minutes played basis, Díaz against Everton is top.

Once the Colombia international had the ball, David Moyes’ men simply couldn’t get it off him. Díaz equalled the club record for final third touches by a forward without being dispossessed (50), per FBRef’s database.

None of this would matter if he had delivered no tangible output. It’s what should be called The Jérémy Doku Conundrum, when dribbles galore result in very few shots or key passes.

But Díaz was very productive, just as he was in the preceding two Premier League matches. After the 27th game of the campaign, he had completed 12 carries of at least five metres which ended with him creating a chance. In the last three matches he added another eight, which included his first two assists of the campaign which meet the carrying criteria; for Dominik Szoboszlai against Newcastle then Darwin Núñez versus Southampton.

There was no carry involved when he set up Jota against Everton. However, the assist means that Díaz has created the Reds’ first goal in each of their last three league games.

There was little offence that Liverpool turned into shots which didn’t involve their left-forward. He took three and created six of the 17 goal attempts the Reds fired off, while he played the pre-assist pass for another leaving just seven which carried no mention of Díaz in the FBRef match report.

Let’s review them. He won the early corner from which Ibrahima Konaté should really have scored. The former Porto winger then played a pass in the sequence leading to Jota’s off target effort in the 27th minute, before having several touches in the possession chain which resulted in an effort for Jones shortly before he was substituted.

Even when not involved, he was sometimes on hand. Exhibit A: screaming for a pull back when Andy Robertson decided to take an ugly swipe of a hopeless shot instead.

There was one shot after he’d gone off, so with the Szoboszlai free-kick following that foul on Alexis Mac Allister, that leaves only one other in open play which had no involvement from Díaz.

You can see why I wrote about the Lucho show rather than the match itself, can’t you?