Against Leicester City on Monday night, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp fielded what could well be his first-choice frontline for just the second time.
Cody Gakpo lined up at center-forward, with Mohamed Salah and Luis Díaz deployed either side of him.
Because Gakpo didn't join until January and Díaz was out injured from October until April, the only other time this combination had been seen from the off was the 4-3 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. And yet, most fans would bet on this being the most common selection in 2023/24 given the quality all three have demonstrated.
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Salah assisted all three of Liverpool's goals, the first time he's achieved such a hat-trick in the Premier League, and Gakpo once again impressed, but it's fair to say Díaz struggled a touch.
He rarely looked like scoring, mustering just 0.08 expected goals and firing both of his shots off target, and his contribution elsewhere was decidedly limited.
Usually a formidable one-versus-one threat, he only completed a solitary dribble here (three attempted) and, overall, he lost 15 of the 19 duels he contested, a success rate of just 21 per cent. What's more, the winger committed four fouls, more than anybody else in the match.
You would put it down to pure rust — this was only his third start since returning from injury — but Díaz has looked far more like his old self in previous outings. Instead, this was just a rare off night.
Fortunately, like in the second half of last season, there's very little pressure on the Colombian right now.
![Luis Díaz didn't have his best game for Liverpool against Leicester](https://i2-prod.liverpool.com/incoming/article26928235.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_GettyImages-1255160360.jpg)
In his first six months or so at Anfield following his $62m (£50m/€57m) January move from Porto, Díaz was granted enviable freedom.
Klopp repeatedly emphasized that he adopted a laissez-faire approach, allowing Díaz to simply play his own game rather than overloading him with information. It was plug and play, rather than 'read the entire instruction manual and play'.
Supporters were patient. They focused on Díaz's performance levels, which were excellent, rather than his output — a steady six goals and five assists in 26 appearances.
The near-universal expectation was that he would take the leap in terms of end product after a full pre-season with his new club.
And 2022/23 got off to a promising start as Díaz scored four and set up three more in his first 12 appearances, averaging 0.65 goal contributions per 90 minutes, up from 0.59 the previous season.
But then injury struck. First, Díaz was ruled out from early October until December with a knee problem, and then a devastating setback in the club's Dubai training camp sidelined him until the spring. You wonder just where he'd be numerically without those problems.
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![Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp.](https://i2-prod.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/article28219150.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/0_GettyImages-1748470251.jpg)
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After 33 matches and six months, the 26-year-old finally returned as a substitute against Leeds United last month. He's appeared in seven games since, scoring once, but you get the sense immediate expectations are limited.
The onus instead is on returning to maximum athletic capacity and thus laying the groundwork for next season, when Liverpool hope to be far more than top-four outsiders. Indeed, Klopp seems to have looked upon this year's run-in as something of a pre-pre-season.
Next year, the targets for Díaz will crank up a notch, provided he can avoid further injury woe. After all, competition for places is fierce, with Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota both waiting in the wings.
Just as Gakpo is being styled as the heir to Roberto Firmino, Díaz is the successor to Sadio Mané, and Klopp and his staff will likely be counting on similar numbers.
Mané averaged exactly 20 goals a season across his six years at Anfield, and those are the kind of heights Díaz must strive to hit come August, 18 months on from his arrival.
By doing so, he can definitively make the left-wing spot his own in the face of stern competition, fill the void left by a Liverpool legend and establish himself as one of the very best left wingers on the planet. It's a tough ask, but those are the brutal selection criteria Mané helped establish.