Colombian winger Luis Diaz was left out of Liverpool’s squad for their 4-2 friendly defeat to AC Milan in Hong Kong on Saturday and Arne Slot has confirmed it was due to uncertainty over his future at Liverpool.
Both Diaz and fellow forward Darwin Nunez were left out of the Liverpool squad, with Diaz linked with a move to Bayern Munich and Nunez linked with the likes of Napoli and Al-Hilal.
Nunez was left out due to an injury, but Diaz appears to be inching closer to the exit door.
Arne Slot on Luis Diaz future, transfer speculation
Speaking to reporters after the game, Arne Slot said the following when asked if Luis Diaz was left out of the squad due to transfer speculation.
“In Lucho’s situation it was, yeah. There’s a lot of rumors around him lately and I cannot go into that. He’s training really well with us but we have decided for now not to play him yet,” Slot said.
Slot was also asked if he has spoken to Diaz about the situation: “Yeah, but I’m used to talking to most of my players on a regular basis. Like I said, Lucho is training really well and we’ve decided that he’s not playing at the moment in the games. I cannot comment much more about that,” Slot added.
He also confirmed that Nunez “was injured so we didn’t take the risk” and he hopes the Uruguayan will be available to play in Japan in their next friendly next week.
Diaz appears to be heading out, as Liverpool strengthen their attack
If Liverpool move on Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez this summer but end up with Alexander Isak (he could join) up top supported by Hugo Ekitike, Mohamed Salah and Florian Wirtz, and the likes of Cody Gakpo, Harvey Elliott as back-up options, would they have the best attacking unit in the Premier League?
Probably.
It could turn out to be one of the best transfer windows in Premier League history as Nunez has struggled to score consistently, while Diaz is a fine player but seems happy enough to move on to help Liverpool fund a lot of their big spending on new forwards.
