Diaz might proceed as major striker

Liverpool coach Arne Slot admits he was shocked with how effectively Luis Diaz performed as a  centre ahead within the Champions League.

The Colombia worldwide scored his first hat-trick for the membership in 4-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen after beginning the sport by way of the center.

Darwin Nunez is Liverpool’s solely match central striker as Diogo Jota is out with an damage to his higher physique, and with summer time signing Federico Chiesa additionally sidelined it means Slot has needed to be extra artistic together with his formation.

“Lucho [Diaz] did very well and if was, even for me, perhaps a little bit of a shock to see how effectively he did,” Slot stated.

“I performed him there for a purpose, I anticipated him to do good however that he performed so effectively that was even a shock for me.

“After we had Darwin and Diogo obtainable we all the time performed a type of two.

Diogo Jota is anticipated to return from damage quickly after the November worldwide break 🗓️

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 8, 2024

“Lucho can be an excellent left winger. At this second we now have 4 attackers obtainable for 3 positions so we might provide you with one other thought once more but when Diogo comes again and Darwin is again then we now have two numbers nines obtainable once more.”

Father Jones impressing

One other participant thriving underneath Slot is academy graduate Curtis Jones, who has been included within the England squad for this month’s Nations League matches.

The 23-year-old grew to become a father for the primary time final month and Slot has observed a change within the participant.

“You by no means know if that performs a component or not,” he stated forward of the go to of Aston Villa.

“He already did this within the first few weeks that we labored collectively in pre-season – I used to be like ‘phwoar, high quality participant’ however then his performances dropped.

“However for the reason that second he grew to become a father he was excellent once more and I feel it might need to do a bit with that however normally I feel it has to do with how the staff performs as a result of each participant who is available in has a superb efficiency.”

Liverpool’s eight wins, a draw and one defeat has them high of the desk heading into the weekend however Slot is just not getting carried away.

“I’m not making an attempt to handle expectations throughout the squad as a result of we don’t speak about them. The one expectation I’ve is for them to place the identical effort in every single day,” stated the pinnacle coach.

“I’m not asking them to win each sport however I’m asking them to place effort in every day.”