Darwin Nunez: Liverpool head coach Arne Slot says: ‘I don’t just judge him on his goals’
Liverpool manager Arne Slott has defended Darwin Nunez, highlighting his all-round impact in the goal-struggle.
The 25-year-old Uruguayan striker has scored just three goals in 19 appearances for the club this season and failed to take many chances in Tuesday’s 1-0 Champions League win over Girona.
“For me, he’s influential,” Slott said ahead of Saturday’s (15:00 GMT) Premier League clash with leaders Fulham.
“If you just look at the goals scored, he hasn’t scored the goals he would like to score, or we would like a number nine to score, but he’s definitely had an impact on his work-rate. He’s a A member of a goal-scoring team scores a lot of goals and wins a lot.
“Of course as a number nine you want to score more goals and that’s definitely what he wants. But I don’t just judge them on Mohamed Salah’s goal and Darwin’s goal, I judge them on Judge them by their productivity and what they bring to the team.
“The fans are so supportive of him and maybe he wants too much.”
Slott, who substituted Nunez after 71 minutes against Girona, believes the impact of missed chances affected the forwards in that game.
Nunez appeared to respond to some of the criticism of his performance, posting later on Instagram: “Not all of them, just some. Thank you Reds for the support, we are still together.”
In another article, he wrote “Resiliencia,” which is Spanish for “resilience.”
Slaughter added: “I made it clear to him that he would be judged not only on the number of goals scored but also on the performance of the team.
“Ideally he’ll score a few more goals. That’s life as a No.9 – sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t – but what should always be there is work rate.”
“That’s how he performed apart from the two games – the first against Las Palmas (pre-season) and the last half hour against Girona where he wasn’t up to the standard he should have been, which is different from what he did in “It has a lot to do with being disappointed after the game.”
Slott is likely to have forwards Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa back against Fulham.
Portugal striker Jota has been out since October 20 with a chest injury, while Chiesa has struggled to regain fitness since his summer move from Juventus.
