Trent Alexander-Arnold believes it’s ‘easy’ for people to write Darwin Nunez off but is confident that the Liverpool forward will soon be firing on all cylinders.
Since signing from Benfica in a deal worth an initial £64m in the summer, the 23-year-old has scored ten goals and registered three assists in 23 appearances for the FA Cup champions (across all competitions).
“He’s a player who I think it’s easy to just write him off, it’s easy to say he’s not scoring goals,” the Scouser told Sky Sports (via GOAL). “But he’s getting himself into areas and places where he’s able to hurt the opposition and that’s all you can really ask. We have faith that the goals will start coming. No-one here is thinking about that. We are all behind him and we are all supporting him. It’s always good to see him on the scoresheet, but as long as the team wins, that’s all anyone cares about.”
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His numbers aren’t too bad for a player that cannot yet speak fluent English and has only had two full seasons worth of top flight footballing experience in Europe.
It’s the huge chances that Nunez has missed so far this season which has brought attention to his name, however, but as Trent rightly pointed out, the versatile forward is constantly getting into the right areas and hurting the opposition with his pace and movement.
With Klopp’s men currently seven points behind fourth placed Manchester United and 16 points adrift of league leaders Arsenal, some will claim that Liverpool’s struggles are a result of Sadio Mane’s departure to Bayern Munich in the summer.
And although our No. 66 admitted that the Senegal star is a ‘world-class player’, he’s confident that there is enough quality still in the Reds squad to achieve success this term.
“It’s always going to be different, but I think that’s just part of football,” Alexander-Arnold added. “I don’t think you can get used to playing with certain players because the football world chops and changes every single season. You can’t just rely on certain players.
“Sadio is a world-class player and has been for many years. He’s someone who will help any team he’s at and do the things he does to a level that others can’t, so of course we are going to miss what he brings to the team.
“But we’ve got other players with different qualities who bring different things to our game who will help us in what we need to do.”
The injuries to Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz this season certainly haven’t helped and although Klopp has ultimately ruled out the potential for any further signings this month, the hope is that Cody Gakpo can hit the ground running in a Red shirt following his arrival from PSV recently.