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LONDON. — The January transfer market has often been cast as a place where desperate football clubs trade in a bid to salvage their seasons. 

Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, used to question its value, once saying “all the big transfers happen in the summer.” 

Liverpool might beg to differ. 

The mid-season arrival of Luis Diaz is a major factor behind the English club’s ability to maintain their improbable charge toward an unprecedented quadruple of major trophies.

And nowhere was this exemplified more than in the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday night. 

For once, Liverpool were in trouble, 2-0 down at half-time and playing so badly that when manager Jurgen Klopp asked his assistant, Peter Krawietz, to find an example of the players following pre-game tactical instructions, the reply was: “I can’t find one.” 

Enter Diaz. 

The sprightly Colombia winger brought energy to Liverpool, getting the team on the front foot with his direct running and incisiveness early in the second half. He scored one of three goals in a 12-minute span to turn the match around as the Reds won 3-2 and advanced, 5-2 on aggregate, to a third Champions League final in five years. 

The outlay of 45 million euros (US$50 million) to bring Diaz from Porto is looking like a bargain. 

“You don’t expect miracles immediately from these kind of players,” Klopp has said, referring to January signings like Diaz. “But he is not far away from doing exactly that.” 

It isn’t just what Diaz is doing on and off the ball — his work rate is as impressive as his wonderful first touch and trickery — but also how his introduction to the side is impacting his teammates. 

With Diaz becoming increasingly first choice on the left wing, Sadio Mane has been pushed inside into more of a mobile centre forward and is in his best spell of the season. Indeed, Diaz and Mane are outshining Mohamed Salah, the most celebrated member of Liverpool’s front three and the team’s top scorer this season. Andrew Robertson, who plays as an attacking left back behind Diaz, also is making the most of the space created by Diaz occupying defenders. — AP