Newcastle United and Colombia icon Faustino Asprilla believes that Liverpool forward Luiz Diaz is being crippled by anxiety in the early days of his career at Anfield.
Diaz arrived at Liverpool from Porto in a £40.5m deal in the January transfer window, with the Reds taking advantage of the Portuguese side’s financial situation to get a favourable deal.
He’s been an instant hit on Merseyside, with a series of scintillating displays already making him a player to keep an eye on.
Of course, he arrived in the Premier League with a glowing reputation after his spell in Portugal, where he managed 41 goals and 19 assists in 125 games in all competitions for Porto during his three years with the club.
Sadly, though, the goals have not been flowing for Liverpool as yet, with just one to his name in his nine games so far.
This week saw him miss a prime opportunity to add to that tally, with the forward missing a last-minute opportunity against Inter Milan that, on reflection, he will have been disappointed by.
That moment did not go unnoticed by Newcastle icon Asprilla, who believes the Liverpool man is being held by back by anxiety.
“I think ‘Lucho’ is being eaten up by anxiety,” Marca Colombia report the former Newcastle man saying.
“He’s playing very well, but when it comes to scoring, he’s making the wrong decision, in that play, we saw he had to score first.
“In the Copa America, he scored an almost impossible goal (against Brazil in the group stage), and now he has a chance to score first time, and he couldn’t. Anxiety is killing him.”
