How Slot's genius Diaz move tore Leverkusen apart

Arne Slot made a brave tactical tweak for the Champions League visit of Bayer Leverkusen and was rewarded with a huge win.

Photo: IMAGO | Anfield Index

Any manager coming into a new club generally needs time to get the squad of players he inherits used to a fresh way of working.

And so it is unusual to see too much experimentation in terms of tactical approaches in the early months of their reign.

But it is testament to the speed with which Arne Slot has got Liverpool adapted to his demands that he felt that he could mix things up so significantly against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday.

It is also typical of his remarkable start to life at Anfield that, in arguably his side’s toughest Champions League game thus far, the aforementioned tweak came off so emphatically.

We are talking, of course, about the surprise decision to deploy Luis Diaz in the centre-forward role for the Reds’ fourth European outing of the season.

The Colombian had never before started a game there for Liverpool, and this was a gamble that also meant benching the constantly improving Darwin Nunez.

However, with Diaz going on to grab a hat-trick in a 4-0 victory for the Reds, it would be fair to say Slot’s decision paid off.

After the game, the Dutchman described Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah as his main motivation for the switch, saying: “Tah is a well-known and respected centre-back. If I play with a No.9, Tah is just gonna kill him!

“So let's try to get Lucho to drop into midfield or make runs in behind. That's why we played Lucho in that position instead of a target man like Darwin.”

A look at Diaz’s carries throughout the match show exactly how that worked, with the No.7 forgoing a fixed position in order to roam across the pitch.

His passes tell a similar story of a player who was tasked with linking play wherever necessary in order to try and disorganise the visiting defence.