Scrutiny on Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez is continuing to grow with the forward having made just two starts for Jurgen Klopp’s side since joining from Benfica in a deal worth up to £85million.
The 23-year-old started well, scoring in his first two appearances for Liverpool against Manchester City in the Community Shield and then on the opening day of the Premier League season at Fulham.
However, a moment of madness against Crystal Palace where he headbutted defender Joachim Andersen saw him shown a red card and handed a three-game suspension. Since his return, Nunez has started on the bench for the Reds’ last three matches and saw Diogo Jota introduced ahead of him in Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Brighton.
Klopp this week though confirmed he’d spoken with Nunez on Sunday and reassured him that there was no panic around his slow start to life at the club. The Liverpool boss said: “He’s good. Of course he’s still adapting. New players come in and everybody talks about them and wants them to shine immediately; that happens from time to time and sometimes not.
“Only yesterday we had a long talk with him through Pep Lijnders, because my Portuguese is still not better. We just told him we are really calm. It’s really important in our situation that he isn’t looking like he is worrying or whatever."
Klopp also attributed Liverpool’s faltering form as another reason why the forward has struggled: “The team is not flying and that makes it not easier for a striker, especially not for a finisher. It’s not that we aren’t creating chances, but it’s not like everything is clicking and we put in one player and he finishes our situation off. That’s not our situation at the moment as much as I wish it would be.”
The German coach was speaking ahead of Tuesday night’s crucial Champions League clash against Rangers. The two sides will meet twice across a decisive week which is set to determine whether they’ll make it out of the group stage of the competition.
Have your say! Should Darwin Nunez start against Rangers? Give us your score prediction in the comments section .
Klopp’s men have three points from their first two matches following defeat to Napoli and a home win against Ajax, while Rangers were well-beaten in both their fixtures against the pairs’ Group A rivals. And it was the manner of those losses that suggests tonight’s clash could be an ideal fixture for Nunez to return to the starting lineup and get among the goals once again.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men lost both matches by an aggregate scoreline of 7-0, and their underlying defensive numbers suggest they’re struggling to cope with the step up in quality competing again in Europe’s premier competition.
Not only have they conceded the most Champions League goals in the competition so far, but they have also allowed the most shots on their goal (40) and have accumulated the joint-highest combined Expected Goals Against (xGA) too (5.2).
Although Liverpool suffered a nightmare evening in their Champions League opener in Naples, and have looked short of their best across most of the campaign so far, their own Champions League attacking numbers do highlight they’ve still managed to remain one of the more dangerous attacking units in the competition.
So far, Liverpool have recorded the most touches in the opposition’s penalty area (70), attempted the second-highest number of shots (39) behind only group rivals Napoli, and accumulated the fifth-highest xG (4.01).
This highlights they’re still creating opportunities for their forwards, something that should be set to continue when coming up against one of the weaker teams in the competition. It could be an ideal game then for Nunez to put his struggles behind him and kickstart his Liverpool career.
