Jurgen Klopp praised new signing Luis Diaz after the Colombian impressed on his Premier League debut in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Leicester City on Thursday, with the Reds coach claiming the dazzling winger already looks at home on Merseyside.
Diaz joined Liverpool on last week’s January deadline day from Portuguese side Porto, and made his debut off the bench in the weekend FA Cup win over Cardiff City.
Klopp was sufficiently impressed to give Diaz a start against Leicester, with the 25-year-old causing all kinds of problems all match, as he looks like a real asset for Liverpool already.
“When we saw him playing for Porto, we thought yes, that’s exactly what we want him to do as well,” Klopp said. “On top of that, he seems to be a really smart footballer and has obviously watched Liverpool quite a lot.
“We don’t overload new players with information in the first week and tell them everything what we want them to do, we just have a look and when we looked at him in training, he already looked like a Liverpool player.”
A goal in each half from Diogo Jota was enough for Liverpool to get the better of Leicester, with the victory helping Klopp’s side close the gap to leaders Manchester City to nine points.
“I’m not sure we are in a position to get them (City) on their toes to be honest,” Klopp added. “But it’s not important at the moment. I don’t think we have much chance to catch them.
“Would that mean we shall not try to have the best possible season? First and foremost, we have to win our football games and this football club is massive.
“It was really important for us tonight to win because there’s not only Man City to catch, there’s a lot of teams behind us want to get closer.”
Leicester, who finished fifth in the last two Premier League seasons, continued to disappoint this term, with the defeat leaving them down in 12th in the standings.
Coach Brendan Rodgers, however, believed his side had improved markedly from their FA Cup humbling at the hands of second-tier Nottingham Forest at the weekend.
“We’ve restored the pride in our performance,” Rodgers said. The weekend was nowhere near the level we need to be, so it was a tough couple of days.
“Then coming to here against a top opponent was going to be a real challenge. But we showed that resilience is very much in this team.”
