Luis Diaz has already scored eight goals in 14 competitive games for FC Bayern. That’s a very respectable tally, but it could be much higher. No one in Europe’s top five leagues misses more big chances.
Here are just three examples of Luis Diaz missing an almost certain goal: In Augsburg on matchday 2, the 28-year-old only had to tap the ball into an empty net from close range in the first minute, but instead passed it across. Last Saturday, the Colombian again ran alone towards the Mönchengladbach goal after just a few seconds, but shot wide of the gaping net. On Wednesday evening in Cologne, with the score at 2-1, he had time and space from the halfway line to consider how to shoot the ball into the goal. In the end, his attempt went over.
There are other examples: in the first round of the DFB Cup, for example, Luis Diaz wasted half a dozen good chances against Wehen Wiesbaden. The notable exception to the many chances that often arise at the start of a game was his 1-0 goal in Frankfurt in the first minute of play.
Don’t get me wrong: Liverpool’s new signing has already proven his worth, he plays very well for the team, is resilient, and delivers goals and assists. It’s just that there could be a lot more goals.
The statistics are almost unbelievable: Luiz Diaz has already accumulated 19 big chances this season and missed 14 of them. That’s the highest number in Europe’s top five leagues.
Optimists might say that a professional has to earn those chances first, but realists shake their heads in disbelief. Especially when you look at the other names in the top five:
Kane, Haaland, and Mbappé are also on the list
In second place, with ten big chances each, are Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, and Dia’s teammate Harry Kane, as well as former Mainz player Jean-Philippe Mateta from Crystal Palace. The only explanation for this collection of world-class players is that many other players cannot have missed ten big chances because they didn’t even have that many in total…
But back to Luiz Diaz: these misses are not significant yet, as his FC Bayern has won all 14 competitive games this season. On Wednesday evening in Cologne, he missed his best chance, as described, but scored the 1-1 and skilfully set up the final 4-1 by Michael Olise. However, the 1-1 would have been disallowed in the Bundesliga, where VAR would have spotted the clear offside.
Nevertheless, this generosity in missing chances could come back to haunt them at some point—namely when it comes to the decisive knockout games, where chances are fewer and farther between. Because efficiency is what counts, one goal or another. Kane can tell you a thing or two about that: the usually accurate Englishman missed a 100% chance in the Champions League quarter-final against Inter Milan last season when the score was 0-0 in the first leg. Considering the 3-4 aggregate score, it was a very costly miss.
