Luis DIAZ: 2024/25

Cheapest player retention strategy.

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Diazā€™s work ethic was superb today. On the ball I thought he was poor but he worked his socks off in a way that none of our other forwards can. Nunez can run but heā€™s not as strategic in how he presses.

He managed to be excellent today despite barely having a good touch of the ball to speak of.

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He had that one run and shot that was excellent, decisive and went at Lewis and beat him easily.

He had a couple of other opportunities to run at Lewis and kept stopping, I know, when defending if a player runs at you with pace it is far more difficult than just stopping.

ā€¦ and thereā€™s always an exception to any such statement, thinking of Mane.

When Nunez presses his angles are much better than Diaz. When it comes to defending both are prone to silly fouls.
Diaz can be very frustrating with his crazy ways and very poor decisions when passing in midfield. I feel heā€™s been poor recently in comparison to what we have seen at other times.

Against PSG it was Moā€™s side and pressing angles that were poor.

Mo doesnā€™t do pressing or passing lanes. Thatā€™s not his job. Though this season he has made good efforts to defend. ,:grinning:

And that at times is why Trent has a torrid time because he gets overloaded on his side especially against teams that have an overlapping LB.

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I agree Diaz has been poor recently, canā€™t agree in regards to pressing though. I just see Nunez running randomly - he did press well once against Southampton but as with everything about him it is wildly inconsistent.

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He pressed the PSG goalkeeper better than anyone else just yesterday. Pressing isnā€™t just one player and if heā€™s not successful itā€™s not necessarily his fault.

Compared to Diaz heā€™s almost a magician. :rofl:

Really, our press for the 1st 25 mins was very good and they struggled against it until Dembele dropped into the hole with no one picking him up.

Yes thereā€™s many who donā€™t pick up runners in our team. Often they stand there pointing :point_up:.
Good job we have good goalkeepers. :grinning:

We were caught too wide open (or cut in two) for their goal, plus a few individual so-so reactions. I agree, our intensity and general quality was pretty good in the opening stages. Needed the final bit, a better final decision, pass or shot. Diaz was his usual self, lots of energy, twisting and turning, but unfortunately not very effective. Against Southampton it took him, what, an hour or so to finally get past Walker-Peters. Had a good second half there, looked like Slotā€™s HT anger hit home.