The Colombian was given the task of leading the Reds' forward line on Tuesday night as the Bundesliga champions, managed by Xabi Alonso, headed to Anfield in the fourth game of the new-look European format.
Leverkusen's five-at-the-back formation had initially proved troublesome for Liverpool in the first half, with Slot's side managing few efforts at Luka Hradecky. But that all changed in the 61st minute when Diaz broke the deadlock with an outstanding dinked finish past the Leverkusen shot-stopper.
Cody Gakpo doubled the Reds' lead less than two minutes later when he connected with Mohamed Salah's cross at the back post, leaving Diaz to apply the gloss on a memorable European night as he netted twice more in the final 10 minutes to become the first Liverpool player to score a Champions League hat-trick at Anfield since Philippe Coutinho seven years ago.
And post-match, Liverpool head coach Slot was asked about the decision to play Diaz in a new-look role in central attack.
"A few things. I only have four attackers available at the moment with the injuries to Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa. And Darwin didn't play that much in the beginning and then started to play a bit more," he said.
"With this fixture list, it is almost impossible to play them all. So that, combined with Jonathan Tah being a really good defender, one of the best defenders in Germany, who likes to play a bit more against a target man, means we chose to play Lucho more from the left or from midfield and maybe surprise him afterwards with runs in behind.
"And yeah, if you look at the first goal, that paid off. What a pass from Curtis Jones."
Slot, though, had further praise reserved for Liverpool's No.7, whose tally for the season stands at nine after taking home the match ball on Tuesday night, adding: "Not only the people in Colombia like Lucho, the fans of Liverpool love him a lot as well.
"I heard many times the fans singing his song. And the manager likes him as well. I don't love him but I like him a lot! He's played many, many games but I just said something about Darwin Nunez; in the Premier League and Champions League, you have to play so many games at the highest level and it's not possible for every player to play every game.
"Especially in certain positions, if you are a centre-back, normally you don't run as much as a left-winger, or a full-back, or a midfielder. And especially our wingers because if you look at the goals Lucho and Cody scored, but I also look at how hard they track back and how much they have to defend.
"I ask a lot of them, so that's why we have to rotate them. But Lucho, for me, is a starter and I said this three days ago about Cody as well. For me, he is a starter also."
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