Luis Diaz’s Liverpool career was 10 minutes old when he offered the first evidence that Jurgen Klopp has again displayed his ability to find a forward in the transfer market.
Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota are signs he has a golden touch and while Diaz’s debut did not contain a goal for him, it did bring one for Takumi Minamino, who may drift down the pecking order after the £50 million (€67.7m) man’s arrival.
Diaz capitalised a breakdown in communication in the Cardiff defence, dispossessed Perry Ng and teed-up Minamino. It came courtesy of Klopp’s favourite tactic game from a player who has barely had time to work with his new teammates. “Incredible high press, I love it,” smiled his new manager.
There was a painful sequel courtesy of an accidental collision with Cardiff’s Aden Flint. “I saw the big fellow of Cardiff standing on his knee,” Klopp noted. “Now he has his first assist and his first scar. But it is nothing serious.”
But Liverpool could celebrate a new start and a fresh start as, for just the second time in Klopp’s reign, they booked a place in the last 16 of the FA Cup and an Anfield date with Norwich City.
Harvey Elliott’s return, 21 weeks after he dislocated his ankle, has come quicker than many expected and was capped by a maiden Liverpool goal. It was taken superbly, the 18-year-old turning to unleash an unstoppable half-volley after he met Andy Robertson’s cross. “With the goal it became a proper fairy tale,” grinned Klopp. “It was a horrible injury. When we lost him at Leeds, it was one of the hardest moments of my career.”
Diaz and Elliott came on together, a double change featuring two men who could figure together prominently in the future. Yet Klopp had waited to bring each on until after his side scored. “In these games you need an opener,” he said and, not for the first time, Diogo Jota delivered.
Jota’s brilliance in the air belies his relatively small stature and he timed his leap to outjump the far taller Mark McGuinness and head in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s free kick for his 15th goal of the season. “He has a nose for these situations,” Klopp noted.
Jota’s capacity to emerge unmarked in the penalty box was notable again minutes later when he volleyed wide. He had been Liverpool’s major threat in the first half, drawing a sharp save from Dillon Phillips with a fourth-minute effort that proved their only shot on target before the break.
Cardiff felt they should have had a first-half penalty, for Ibrahima Konate’s barge on Mark Harris, while Liverpool were reprieved when goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher charged out and brought down the forward in the first minute of the second half.
Referee Andy Madley settled for a yellow card, the distance from his unguarded net helping to save Kelleher. “I don’t think it was a sending off,” said the commendably honest Cardiff manager Steve Morison. Ruben Colwill, 19, became the second teenager to score, drilling in a consolation goal but it was Diaz and Elliott’s day.
