Chelsea has finished the winter transfer window without any reinforcements in the front line and now looks to the summer transfer window, for which the Sporting Directors have already begun building a list of potential acquisitions.
Last summer, the Blues brought in 10 new signings: Marc Guiu, Tosin Adarabioyo, Jadon Sancho, Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Omari Kellyman, Aaron Anselmino, Pedro Neto, Filip Jorgensen, and Mike Penders. Three of these were wingers or wide forwards.
According to Caught Offside, Luis Diaz is the latest player to be added to Chelsea's wishlist, as the forwards currently on the roster seem to have underperformed, leaving much to be desired. The Colombian international has been a mainstay in Arne Slot's Liverpool as the Merseyside club has challenged for the league title this season, so it's easy to see why he has caught the attention of other big-six sides.
Chelsea currently has seven players on the roster who play in the wide forward areas. This means those seven players are competing for three spots, if you include the central attacking midfield spot—which is not a wide area. One of them, Cole Palmer, is a mainstay, so that leaves six players competing for two spots. This already paints a picture of the situation at Chelsea regarding player dissatisfaction with minutes.
This is made worse by targeting a winger in Diaz, who does not offer much more than the current forwards. There is nothing about the Liverpool No. 7 that suggests he would offer significantly more than the current crop, given similar circumstances. He cannot really be described as a creative winger, given his chance-creation numbers. He also cannot really be described as a goal-scoring winger, even though he is closer to that than being a creative one.
Diaz started the season on a hot streak, scoring five goals in his first five games and providing one assist. However, he has only scored three more goals in the following 17 games, which is poor. His shooting seems to have improved since the 2022/23 season, where 31% of his shots were on target, according to Sofascore.
The following season, 36% of his shots were on target, and this season, an impressive 43% of his shots have been on target. This is very good for a winger. However, he doesn't take many shots, in fact, fewer per game this season than the last.
His creative numbers are not glowing either, and they never have been. He has created exactly 10 big chances since the start of the 2022/23 season and has played 76 games in that time, starting 60 of them. His chance creation numbers are average, too, averaging 1.3 key passes this season and 1.8 last season.
His goal numbers can also be attributed to the volume of playing minutes he has, which suggests that at Chelsea, where there is fiercer competition for places, he won't get as many opportunities to play, hence shoot, and subsequently score.
These less-than-stellar numbers make Diaz an awkward fit because he would likely just join the queue of wingers trying to get playing minutes on a long-term contract at the club, which would be a poor use of funds, something the Sporting Directors are already known for anyway.
The question, then, is not how the Colombian will fit in with the Blues, but if he will— and there’s nothing to suggest that he will.