Jurgen Klopp has insisted that ‘there’s a lot more to come’ from Darwin Nunez at Liverpool but is content with the Uruguayan’s goal tally this season.
Since signing from Benfica in the summer, in a deal worth an initial £64m, the 23-year-old has scored 15 goals and registered four assists (across all competitions).
His work rate, pace and movement has caught the eye of many but his finishing in front of goal has often let him down and Klopp has explained that the team’s troubles this term have affected our No. 27’s performances.
“There’s a lot more to come. That’s clear. He needs time to settle,” the German tactician said (as quoted by the Independent).
“The most difficult thing for a striker is to come into a team that is not clicking.
“Imagine if we played for us a good season, an 80-point or more season, he would have scored more goals definitely.
“But it is like now each situation we created and miss it is a more high level (of pressure).
“Mo Salah, in his best season when he scored 40-odd goals, missed chances. That’s normal. Erling Haaland missed chances. But they had much more than we created in this period.
“Fifteen goals is absolutely fine. Still three games to go so possibly he can increase that number as well.
“He had time to adapt at Benfica and there was no language issue, or less than it is here. We tried to help him so he can help us even more than he did already.”
We’ve been far from our best for large parts of the campaign and you can’t really expect Nunez to be firing on all cylinders when so many of his teammates have performed below par.
The Uruguay international had only played three full seasons of senior football in Europe before his move to Merseyside and with him also being tasked with learning how to speak English it was always going to take him time to settle.
He has showed glimpses of his potential but with the likes of Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota now back fit, plus the January addition of Cody Gakpo from PSV, the dynamic forward has struggled to earn as many minutes as he would’ve liked in recent weeks.
He has started just five of our 11 games and has scored just once during that time.
The hope is that once he fully sharpens his English and enjoys another preseason with the club that we’ll see him show why the former Borussia Dortmund boss was willing to splash the cash to secure his signature last year.