Initially, the reported €120million fee RB Leipzig were demanding for Yan Diomande seemed excessive.
The 19-year-old joined the Bundesliga club 12 months ago, moving from Leganes for a fee of €20million. He’d made just 10 LaLiga appearances but it was enough to convince the German side.
At the time, it was viewed as an expensive gamble. Now, it looks like a genius decision.
With the way the winger is developing, we’ll be having the same discussions this time next year.
Because, in truth, the €120million price tag is excessive. He has just one year of regular first-team football in a top five European league to his name. We aren’t in one-season wonder territory but you’re paying for potential rather than a guarantee.
However, Diomande’s ceiling is why Liverpool haven’t walked away from the deal, despite RB Leipzig’s demands. He has the potential to be a transformative signing. Despite their lavish spending last summer, the Reds are in dire need of attacking reinforcements.
Not only would the Ivory Coast international reinforce their attack, he’d upgrade it. In doing so, he’d also play a part in helping Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz justify their hefty price-tags too.
Heading into the World Cup, there had been some concerns that Diomande’s impressive numbers last season had been skewed by Bundesliga tax.
The German top-flight favours attackers. It is very end-to-end and the chaos creates opportunities for quick, aggressive forwards.
He, rather emphatically, put to bed those potential doubts in the opener against Ecuador. Diomande was relentless in the 1-0 win for the Ivory Coast.
He finished the game having carved out the most chances (five) and having had the most touches in the opposition box (12). He was up against Piero Hincapie, the Arsenal defender, and he made lightwork of the 6ft centre-back-cum-full-back.
That is no easy feat either.
The RB Leipzig winger had an expected goals (xG) total of 0.2 and an expected assists (xA) haul of 0.34 during the game, he also completed four of his six attempted dribbles. He showcased his in-game intelligence by switching up the way he attacked the opposition depending on the situation.
The unpredictability made him dangerous.
In this scenario, he picks up the ball and could attack the outside. There’s a lot of space there and the Ivory Coast have bodies in the box. However, he drives inside and drags players towards him before slipping a left-footed pass into the path of a teammate who sees his shot saved.
This sequence highlights one key thing. Diomande doesn’t need space to be impactful.
He carried the ball into a compact area and still made something happen. You get some players who fall to bits when they’re shown inside. They want the space on the outside. It’s all they’re good at.
Not the Ivory Coast No11 though. He can be creative pretty much anywhere.
Here, he drives past Hincapie and then carries the ball down the touchline before picking out a pass into the penalty area. The point here is he gets the Ivory Coast from the middle third into the attacking third almost single-handedly.
He isn’t given the ball in a favourable situation either if we’re being honest. He turns it into this with his aggressive approach.
People will point to the space he has to attack but it isn’t there initially, is it? When he picks the ball up, almost on the half-way line, he has Hincapie basically getting a piggyback on him. There’s also an Ecuador player inside.
Diomande’s pace and strength turned it into a foot race on the outside, one he was always going to win. He then shows great composure to pick out a pass and Nicolas Pepe should score.
Diomande has that gravitational pull. Not many players possess it. You need the perfect storm in terms of profile for it to be a thing. Sadio Mane had it. He could do everything.
He could drop deep to pick up possession and hold off an opponent with his sheer strength. He could then carry the ball, effortlessly, and breeze past players, inside or outside, and burst into space.
Alternatively, he could pick out a teammate and then scurry into a dangerous position.
No matter what, he’s a threat and he forced opponents into having to double up on him. You had to engage him. But you had to decide how to approach it. Get too close and he’d carry the ball past you. Stand off of him and he could manipulate a favourable situation to execute a dangerous pass.
He was a dual threat. A ball carrier who could do it in any type of environment.
Diomande gives off those vibes.
He hasn’t yet mastered the beyond the ball runs. He might not ever master it. Not all players develop that clinical, ruthless edge. Some players are simply facilitators.
He’ll score goals and he’ll get into dangerous situations but, right now, in my opinion, he’s not a 20+ attacker. But that’d be asking a lot of him really, given he’s just 19. He did post 12 Bundesliga goals, though it was from an xG of just eight so a huge overperformance.
But it is scalable.
You shouldn’t expect huge returns from Diomande though. Not yet anyway. But you should still pay the big money for him.
He’d terrorise low-blocks and Premier League defenders. He’d blow open game state. The gravitational pull on the right would free up Isak, while also being the one to supply him with the ammo needed.
He’d also allow Liverpool to use more of an inside forward on the left too, making them more of a threat on the whole.
Money is imaginary anyway in football, so does the fee really matter when you can possess a player as impactful as Diomande?
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