Arne Slot has revealed why he opted to select a similar team at West Ham United to the one which started three days earlier against Leicester City.

The Liverpool boss made just one change to his XI, opting to bring Luis Diaz in to replace Darwin Nunez. It was a slightly surprising decision given the busy fixture list and that several players are available once again having returned from knocks and niggles.

Harvey Elliott and Kostas Tsimikas have come back into the squad this month after overcoming respective injuries, as has Diogo Jota. The latter has come off the bench in the last four games but suffered a slight setback following his goalscoring introduction against Fulham two weeks ago.

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Asked why Slot didn’t bring in any of the trio in the starting line-up for the trip to West Ham, he replied: “These players have been out for quite a long time. Jota, in most people’s minds, has been back for two or three weeks, but after the Fulham game he had a little bit of setback again.

“If this is the schedule it is not that easy to bring players from one or two months of not training at all with the team, to starting a Premier League game. I think with Tsimikas, he has only been back with us for one or two weeks. Harvey is longer with us, but there is a lot of competition in the midfield. That has something to do with it as well.”

As for West Ham’s team, there was a slight surprise to see Julen Lopetegui name five defenders. The ex-Spain and Real Madrid boss has tended to select a back four but clearly has made alterations to try and stymie Liverpool’s rich attacking resources.

“I don’t know if they do it for me but they probably do it maybe because of the qualities we have,” he told Sky Sports ahead of the game. “Maybe this is also influenced by the injuries and suspensions. You have to ask the other manager of course.

“But it’s clear they have not started many games [with five at the back], maybe Chelsea at home. But mostly in recent weeks they have started with four and then if they have a result gone to five at the back. It is a bit of a surprise that they start with five, although this is something we already spoke about with the players before the game.”