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Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images
The departure of James Milner means the Colombian attacker is able to switch to the number seven shirt.
As players depart and new ones arrive, shirt numbers are always a major talking point for fans over a summer offseason in football. Occasionally, though, it’s not just new signings making shirt number news.
Today, then, we have official confirmation that for the 2023-24 season, Luis Diaz will take on the number seven shirt vacated by James Milner this summer, with the Colombian attacker making the switch from 23.
With all due respect to former 23-wearers Jamie Carragher and Xherdan Shaqiri, taking up the seven if and when it becomes available is probably the move you’d expect for a skillful, pacy attacker like Diaz.
Before Milner took the seven into midfield—and it’s perhaps worth remembering he started his career on the wing—it was worn for the Reds by Uruguayan superstar forward and bite impression artist Luis Suarez.
From a Liverpool perspective, it’s also a shirt that carries the weight of being worn by Kenny Dalglish—though most of its other wearers over the years haven’t quite achieved what he, Milner, and Suarez have.
After a injury-hit 2022-23, Diaz will hope a new shirt number helps him get back to the kind of consistent form he found of his first six months on Merseyside following his arrival from Porto in January of 2022.
