Arne Slot lavished praise on Luis Diaz after the Colombian’s second-half hat-trick inspired Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen, maintaining their perfect start to the Champions League season.
Diaz was tasked with leading the Reds’ attack on Tuesday night, with the Bundesliga side, managed by Xabi Alonso, visiting Anfield for the fourth match of the newly structured European competition.
Leverkusen’s five-at-the-back formation proved challenging for Liverpool in the first half, as the visitors restricted the Reds’ attacking opportunities.
Despite some early pressure, Liverpool managed only a few attempts on goal, with Leverkusen goalkeeper Luka Hradecky untested.
The breakthrough came in the 61st minute when Diaz scored with an exquisite dinked finish over Hradecky, breaking the deadlock.
Cody Gakpo quickly doubled Liverpool’s lead less than two minutes later, pouncing on a cross from Mohamed Salah at the back post.
Luis Diaz wasn’t done yet, though, as he added two more goals in the final 10 minutes, completing his hat-trick and sealing the win.
His third goal made him the first Liverpool player to score a Champions League hat-trick at Anfield since Philippe Coutinho, seven years ago.
After the match, Liverpool manager Arne Slot was asked about his decision to deploy Luis Diaz in a more central attacking role.
“A few things. I only have four attackers available at the moment with the injuries to Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa. And Darwin didn’t play that much in the beginning and then started to play a bit more,” he said.
“With this fixture list, it is almost impossible to play them all.
“So that, combined with Jonathan Tah being a really good defender, one of the best defenders in Germany, who likes to play a bit more against a target man, means we chose to play Lucho more from the left or from midfield and maybe surprise him afterwards with runs in behind.
“And yeah, if you look at the first goal, that paid off. What a pass from Curtis Jones.”
He added: “Not only the people in Colombia like Lucho, the fans of Liverpool love him a lot as well.
“I heard many times the fans singing his song. And the manager likes him as well.
“I don’t love him but I like him a lot!
“He’s played many, many games but I just said something about Darwin Nunez; in the Premier League and Champions League, you have to play so many games at the highest level and it’s not possible for every player to play every game.
“Especially in certain positions, if you are a centre-back, normally you don’t run as much as a left-winger, or a full-back, or a midfielder.
“And especially our wingers because if you look at the goals Lucho and Cody scored, but I also look at how hard they track back and how much they have to defend.
“I ask a lot of them, so that’s why we have to rotate them.
“But Lucho, for me, is a starter and I said this three days ago about Cody as well. For me, he is a starter also.”
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