Darwin Nunez has yet to start a game for Liverpool this season, and head coach Arne Slot has explained what the Uruguayan needs to do to earn a starting spot. Since Slot took over from Jurgen Klopp in the summer, Nunez has been limited to four substitute appearances, with Diogo Jota being the preferred central striker. Including the end of last season, Nunez has started only one of Liverpool’s last 12 matches and has scored just once since his late winner against Nottingham Forest in early March.
Arne Slot said “It’s always difficult because players, but also media, only think you have confidence in a player if you play him. We have confidence in all of them, otherwise you don’t bring a player in if you’re 3-1 up (at Milan) about half-an-hour before the end or last week against Nottingham Forest (when) he came on for the last half-an-hour. There’s a lot of confidence in him. But many games have to be played, and there will be enough time to judge Darwin, if he improves and how he improves, and if he can do special things for the club. We did work with him on his qualities to get the best out of him. But there’s also a general thing he has to understand, like all the others. We have shown him videos. Not only him, our staff is working a lot with videos, with individuals, and that is about team orientation—where to position himself when we have the ball, when we don’t have the ball. They all have their own characteristics. So we play with Mo or with Lucho or with Federico or with Cody, it’s always a bit different where you have to position yourself.”
Explaining the differences between Jota and Nunez,
Arne Slot said “I think Diogo is a bit more a striker that can also go into the midfield and play as a false nine or a nine-and-a-half, where Darwin is more the target man that finishes off a good attack. There’s not one type I prefer. It always depends. I like to play a certain style of football—high pressing, dominating, creating as many chances as we can, scoring a lot of goals, not conceding a lot—I think that goes for every manager!”
Slot concluded by noting that Nunez’s situation is similar to other forwards he has coached, including Santiago Giménez, who initially struggled to adapt to the playing style at Feyenoord.
Arne Slot said “Santiago is a nice example of him scoring a lot of goals, but if you look back at the amount of minutes he had in the first half of the season when I arrived, it wasn’t that much. It took him some time to adjust to the intense playing style of what we want from him, and then at a certain moment his goals came.”
