Arne Slot has revealed he was left in the dark about Bayer Leverkusen’s match against his team Liverpool on Tuesday in the Champions League match at Anfield.

The Reds made it four wins from four matches in the competition following a 4-0 win over Xabi Alonso’s side.

Luis Diaz scored his first hat-trick for Liverpool while Cody Gakpo scored a diving header to propel Slot’s side to the top of the revamped Champions League.

The scores were still tied at the break, but the Dutchman had to adjust his game plan to allow his team to take control of the proceedings and seal the victory.

“As is often the case now, managers change their game plan when they come to Anfield or when they play us,” he said.

“That’s also what we saw today.

“I see a lot of things, and so do my staff when we go into a game like this, so we’ve seen a lot of Leverkusen games but I’ve never seen Boniface play from the left. So they played without a nine and that’s why they overloaded the midfield a lot.

“It was quite difficult to get them high. But the good thing is that we hardly conceded anything in the first half. If there were opportunities, they were for us.

“But in the second half we were able to adapt to the game plan from the first half. We took a few more risks and we were also better with the ball. Normally they defend in 5-2-3, now they also defend in 4-4-2. So they changed a lot and we were able to adjust that at halftime.

Continuation of the niche: “I would love to see that (more intensity) from the start. But normally it was the other team that did it, because when the match starts everyone is in very good shape and there is a lot of intensity on both sides.

“I like the fact that we are able to continue to produce this energy and even move up a gear. In some situations, this caused some of the teams we faced to struggle with that intensity.

“But preferably we start like this from the beginning. But we have to give credit to the adversaries we face. Xabi Alonso had a very good game plan which made it difficult for us in the first half.

“But even though it’s difficult for us, not in terms of chances but they have a little more possession of the ball than we would like, we still don’t concede much. This has a lot to do with the work rate of the players.