Arne Slot has defended Darwin Nunez after the striker endured another difficult night in Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Girona. The Uruguayan missed a couple of good chances against the La Liga outfit before being withdrawn after 71 minutes.
The striker only touched the ball 16 times and only completed four successful passes on Tuesday night, with his ineffectual performance following on from another tough showing in last week’s 3-3 draw with Newcastle United. Meanwhile, he has only scored three goals from 19 appearances so far this season, despite starting eight of the Reds’ last 11 matches in the absence of the injured Diogo Jota.
With the Portuguese now back in team training, Nunez’s place in Slot’s starting XI is now under increasing threat.
But while the Dutchman insisted that Nunez was a threat against Girona, he did admit he left the striker on as longer in hope he would be able to end his scoring drought.
“What I can agree on is that he missed a few chances,” Slot said. “Then it’s always the question: does this have anything to do with low confidence or is this a situation where he’s in at the moment?
“I think every striker all around the world has periods where every ball goes in, and sometimes he has a period where you try so hard but you’re not able to score.
“The good thing is that we have many players that can score for us – today Mo again.
“I would have loved to see Darwin score because I think every striker wants to score [and] needs goals – that’s why I kept him in for quite a long time. He was a threat but unfortunately he couldn’t score.”
