During the winter transfer window last month, Liverpool succeeded in signing the 25-year-old from Porto for 37.5 million pounds, outperforming the race for the player’s services over his London rival, Tottenham.
The Colombian striker left his impact quickly with the “reds” during his first two participations, as he entered as a substitute in the cup match against Cardiff (3-1), and then played key in the victory over Leicester City (2-0) Thursday in the Premier League.
And by virtue of his experience, Klopp realizes that any player needs time to adapt to a new team, so how is the case if this team plays in a different tournament from the Portuguese league and with a competitive intensity unparalleled in other leagues.
But the German was impressed by what he saw so far, saying: “It was only his first match (as a start against Leicester), but it was one of the best matches I’ve seen from a new player, honestly, because he looked completely on his own.”
He continued, “But it was only his first match and it remains for us to find out how he will cope with the intense work and all these things related to the Premier League. We are not in a hurry.”
With the return of Sadio Mane from the African Nations Cup, which he won with his country by defeating his colleague Mohamed Salah and the Egyptian national team in the final, Dias faces an uphill task to retain his position in the squad.
The German coach revealed that Salah is available to start Sunday’s league match against Burnley, after he entered as a substitute in Thursday’s meeting against Leicester in his first participation since losing the African Nations Cup final.
“Sadio will be available,” Klopp said. “Friday he will participate in training, full training. We will decide after that how he feels.”
He continued, “Psychologically, he will be in very high spirits, but from a physical point of view we will have to see how he has been in the past few days.”
Liverpool is second in the Premier League, 9 points behind champions and leaders Manchester City, but with a game in hand, Klopp’s team is also fighting on the fronts of the Champions League, Cup and League Cup.
After Sunday’s visit to Burnley, Liverpool will travel to Milan to face Inter, on Wednesday, in the first leg of the Champions League final, to host it again on the eighth of March, after playing the League Cup final against Chelsea on the 27th of this month, then the fifth round of the cup competition. On the second of next month against Norwich.
