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Stephen Warnock referenced an eye-opening statistic when outlining why Tottenham won’t be fussed about missing out on Liverpool winger Luis Diaz.

Liverpool and Tottenham converged in the January window over the future of FC Porto winger Luis Diaz. The Colombian had long been a target of the Reds, though Spurs attempted to steal a march in the winter window.

That prompted Liverpool to take action with Jurgen Klopp’s side securing a £37.5m transfer.

Diaz has hit the ground running at Anfield and has already earned rave reviews for his all-action displays.

His move to Merseyside sparked Tottenham into sanctioning their plan B – signing Dejan Kulusevski from Juventus.

Like Diaz, the Swede has also adapted to the Premier League immediately. He has three goals and six assists in his first 11 matches and has already become an undroppable component in Antonio Conte’s front three.

Kulusevski was signed on an initial loan deal with Spurs expected to make the move permanent in the summer.

And speaking on Sky Sports, pundit Stephen Warnock explained why Kulusevski’s success will leave Tottenham fans unfazed at not signing Diaz.

Would Luis Diaz have worked at Tottenham?

Warnock said (via the Express): “The other point I just wanted to make very quickly was Tottenham fans might be thinking as well they were happy Diaz went to Liverpool because if he hadn’t had gone there, and he’d have gone to Spurs, how would that have fitted in? Would it have worked?

“Listen, we know Diaz is brilliant but they’ll be looking at that thinking ‘we’re happy enough with Kulusevski as well’.”

Warnock qualified his statement by referencing statistics about Liverpool’s fabled front three.

The trio of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane was long held as the gold standard in the Premier League.

However, Tottenham’s own triumvirate containing Kulusevski, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min are virtually unstoppable at present.

Warnock did some digging and found Spurs’ trio matched up even better to Liverpool’s over their first 11 games together.

Warnock continued: “The interesting thing for me is we talk about those three forwards [Salah, Firmino, Mane] in the Premier League and they’ve been the ones we always talk about, the best forward three in the Premier League that we’ve seen in a long, long time.

“And I was looking at the stats over the weekend in the first 11 games together, and Spurs’ stack up better than the Liverpool front three.

“I know it’s only 11 games and we’ll have to judge that over two seasons. Three seasons eventually because we know what those forward three went on to achieve and the ability that they’ve all got.

“But it certainly fares well for this Tottenham Hotspur team and it makes them very, very dangerous to play against. The system that they’ve got, it’s working excellently well for them.”

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