Premier League legend Arsene Wenger has criticised Darwin Nunez as he insisted that Liverpool were 'missing something' amid their continuing struggles.
The Reds were forced to fight back from two goals down to claim a 3-3 draw against Brighton on Saturday. It is a result that leaves them ninth in the top-flight, having won just two games all season.
They are already four points adrift of the Seagulls, who currently occupy the final Champions League qualification place, and 11 points behind leaders Arsenal. That is despite Liverpool smashing their transfer record in the summer to bring in Nunez from Benfica.
But Wenger does not believe the forward has had the desired effect on his new club as yet. Nunez has so far scored just one goal and appears to be behind Roberto Firmino in the pecking order at Anfield.
"For Liverpool, it's difficult to understand. Because they have the same core, the same type of game. They are less efficient in winning the ball back than they were before, they are less vertical as well," Wenger told beIN Sports.
"And certainly, Nunez at the moment hasn't worked out for them. They made a big investment and he's sitting on the bench. They lost Mane who is a top player with top game play.
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"He had something. An aggressive attitude and determination in the big games. Will score no matter what happens, and make it happen. It's difficult to measure how much that takes away, but they miss something they had before."
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has admitted in the wake of the draw with Brighton that his side are feeling the pressure. The German will be hoping to inspire a turnaround in fortunes as they face a tough trip to Arsenal in their next top-flight outing.
"For sure, the Ajax game didn't give us any kind of rhythm because then we left, so that's clear. That is something you usually get from these kind of situations, and momentum with the late goal, with the late winner," he said.
"We could have taken a lot of things into the next game – unfortunately we didn't play. Since then that feeling has pretty much gone, the boys played completely different systems, different opponents in different areas on the planet so that's nothing to do with that anymore.
"How it always is, I know 100 per cent everybody expects for me now, two or three things that I say, everybody feels: 'OK, if we do that then it is done.' But how it always is in difficult moments in life and in football, you have to fight through.
"You have to fight through, you have to be ready to work so hard that you step by step get the confidence back, get the momentum back. We are under pressure, we don't ignore that. It's not now that we increase it every day but it's there. We want to do better, we want to have more points, we want to be in a different area in the table."
