After the Uruguayan’s spectacular goal guided the Reds to a 3-1 victory against West Ham on Sunday, Jurgen Klopp said that Darwin Nunez has made “massive” progress in his second season at Liverpool. The game in question was against the Hammers.
After a significant drop in performance levels during the previous campaign, Liverpool are playing more like their old selves in the early stages of the new campaign. With five victories and a tie in their first six Premier League games, Klopp’s side are now in second place in the standings, two points behind Manchester City, who are in first place.
The two goals that Nunez scored off the bench in the win against Newcastle a month ago were a significant contributor to the total number of points, and he provided another moment of excellence to score the game-winning goal against the Hammers.
Nunez scored his fourth goal of the season by volleying the ball into the net first time after the West Ham defense was freed up by a dinked pass from Alexis Mac Allister.
During his first season at Anfield, the 24-year-old forward had trouble living up to his price tag of 75 million euros (about £65 million), and Jurgen Klopp did not start the season with him as his first choice for the forward position.
“Huge strides have been made in the last three weeks. He poses a risk to us. “I’m sure that every one of you saw the goal,” added Klopp.
“The amount of effort he puts into his defense today is perhaps the most significant change. He constantly desired, but his efforts were not very well organized. Now that looks a lot better, and we discovered a technique to accomplish it that won’t include him at all.
In the first seven games of the season, Liverpool has trailed at some point in four of those games but has battled back to win.
This time they took the lead thanks to a penalty kick from Mohamed Salah, but Jarrod Bowen’s diving header just before halftime brought them back within striking distance.
At the hour mark, Nunez regained the advantage, and Diogo Jota clinched the points for their team five minutes before the end of the match.
And Klopp is encouraged by the spirit his team is displaying despite the fact that they are still getting used to a whole new midfield.
“When these lads are having a good day, they are really excellent football players, and they are already fantastic football players. But even when it gets off to a shaky start – that’s why I like the way the game evolved as I played it,” he said.
This time, though, we were the ones to make the initial concession, but we did so nevertheless. To tell you the truth, it does not feel that much better. But once again, the response was excellent, and right now, that’s the most important thing for us to focus on because we need to develop into the sort of squad that’s incredibly difficult to deal with.