Arne Slot was left surprised by the performance of Luis Diaz in Liverpool’s 4-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen.

Diaz bagged his first-ever hat-trick in Tuesday’s win over Leverkusen in the Champions League at Anfield to propel the Reds to the top of the league table.

The 27-year-old now has nine goals and needs just four more to surpass his tally last season, having made 51 appearances across all competitions.

Diaz was deployed as a no.9 ahead of Darwin Nunez, who according to Slot had played a lot of games for Liverpool since replacing the injured Diogo Jota.

Speaking in his Friday press conference ahead of Villa clash, Slot said: “It depends on the availability of the players. When we had Darwin and Diogo available we always played one of those two.

“The moment Diogo was no longer available and because we play so many games and Darwin didn’t play in the first games it was too much for him, so that’s why we started to come up with other ideas.

“To be honest I liked especially the last idea, I think every Liverpool supporter did with Lucho (Diaz) scoring three goals, two as a No.9 and one as a winger, so that is always interesting to see.

“But Lucho is also a very good left winger.

“At this moment we have four attackers available for three positions so we could come up with another idea again but if Diogo comes back and Darwin is back then we have two No.9s available again and at the beginning of the season I always chose one of these two.

“But Lucho did really well and if was, even for me, maybe a bit of a surprise to see how well he did.

“I played him there for a reason, I expected him to do good but that he played so well that was even a surprise for me.

“That’s what we all see, that he has better numbers than last season.

“I have no clue why that is, the only thing I can come up with is the team provides a lot of chances for these players.

“If Diogo is playing he scores, if Darwin is playing he scores, if Lucho is playing as a left winger he scores but Cody (Gakpo) also scores if he is playing as a left winger.

“That tells me that the team is providing goals for these great individuals and these players all have the qualities, that’s why they play for Liverpool.

“If they are in promising situations they can score a goal and that’s what I make of it but it’s difficult for me to compare it with last season, the only thing I can tell you is how I see it this season.”