Jurgen Klopp has hinted that the best has yet to come from one Liverpool player who’s enjoying a sensational season.
The Reds are virtually assured of their passage to the Europa League quarter-finals after a 5-1 thrashing of Sparta Prague in their own backyard on Thursday, with Darwin Nunez the star of the show as he plundered two show-stopping goals.
The 24-year-old has now scored five goals in his last four appearances, and eight since the start of 2024 (Transfermarkt), but his manager has insisted that the Uruguayan hasn’t even hit his peak yet.
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Klopp said of Liverpool’s number 9 (via liverpoolfc.com): “Wonderful guy, wonderful boy, loves to play for this team and this club together with these boys, and he has quality coming out of his ears, to be honest. But it’s like strikers are: sometimes they score, sometimes they don’t score.
“Is he already at his absolute peak in general? Not now for us, and can he develop? Yes. Is he a threat all the time? Yes, as well.
“He has the most important attitude a striker needs to have – he misses chances, which all strikers are doing, but he is not really bothered by it. He just keeps going and that is why he has now a nice number of goals.
“There are still games to come, opportunities to score. Even when he is not scoring, he is for us incredibly important because he is just a constant threat and gives us some spaces in areas and options to use.”
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Nunez had to endure a barrage of criticism throughout his first 18 months in England from pundits who derided him as a substandard finisher.
While there were occasions when he missed chances you’d expect him to score, his goal return for this season in particular has been the perfect riposte to his doubters, and complaints about his finishing ability have surely been answered by the two sublime strikes he netted against Sparta Prague.
Liverpool have been without either or both of Mo Salah and Diogo Jota for almost all of 2024 so far, and while the loss of two such prolific goalscorers would severely impact most teams, the Uruguayan has done brilliantly to step up and fill that void at Anfield in recent weeks.
Nunez is actually still underperforming on his xG tally of 16.7 from the Premier League and Europa League combined, with 14 goals so far across the two competitions (FBref), which supports Klopp’s belief that there’s still more to come from the 24-year-old.
If the number 9 we’re seeing now has clear room for improvement, then just imagine what he’ll be like when he hits his absolute best!