Why Luis Díaz is The Premier League's Most Important Forward

Luis Díaz is one of the top pressers in the Premier League. It is part of why he has a better record than his positional peers for an interesting metric.

Mohamed Salah is Liverpool’s player of the season. He will receive the equivalent gongs from his fellow professionals and football writers. The 2025 Ballon d’Or should be his too, but it won’t be. Would anybody be shocked if he won Masterchef or Britain’s Got Talent? Probably not.

If a Player of Spring award existed, I’d nominate Luis Díaz. Hell, this is my newsletter, it can exist here and he can have it; congratulations, Lucho.

Since the middle of February, only five players in Europe’s big five leagues have amassed more non-penalty goals and assists than the Colombian (six), with none of them plying their trade in England.

Díaz made a goal contribution in six of Liverpool’s eight league matches in this period, only playing nine minutes in one of the exceptions. When your team wins 2-0 at Manchester City in your worst game for tangible output, you can probably live with yourself.

He also drew blanks in both legs against Paris Saint-Germain and the Carabao Cup final. If you can name a Red who was spectacular in those games, please hit the comments section at the bottom.

As much as we naturally assess attackers on how many goals they score or set up, they must also defend from the front. Reviewing the Statsbomb pressure numbers (on Fantasy Football Scout) for the 2-1 win against West Ham revealed Díaz to have logged 30, the most of any Liverpool player. Adjusting for possession for men who played at least 80 minutes this weekend finds just three across the Premier League who made more, all of whom are central midfielders.

That he was the Reds’ leading presser last time out isn’t unusual, he has been several times already this season. Nonetheless, Díaz’ efforts across the whole campaign deserve highlighting. They may help explain why he is in one sense the most important forward in the 2024/25 Premier League.