Jurgen Klopp is adamant that Darwin Nunez’s upward Liverpool trajectory is only going to continue.
The striker fired a double to help the Reds deliver a 5-1 win over Sparta Prague and take a giant step towards the Europa League quarter-finals. Nunez bagged twice in the first half of the last-16 first-leg encounter, taking his tally to 16 goals for the season.
He’s now surpassed the number of times he scored (15) throughout his maiden campaign at Anfield after arriving from Benfica in the summer of 2022 for a fee that could reach £85 million – and in three fewer matches.
Nunez has been guilty of spurning big chances and Klopp admitted that’s something he will continue to do – like every centre-forward in the world. And even when the Uruguay international is not finding the back of the net, Klopp believes that Nunez will always cause havoc for the opposition.
The Liverpool manager said: “He had an absolutely more-than-OK first season but he had to adapt, that’s done, [he is] settled in the middle of the team. 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. And 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.”
