Jurgen Klopp hints at Darwin Nunez having a part to play against Fulham
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, while speaking in the pre-match press conference (h/t Liverpool Echo) gave a hint on whether Darwin Nunez will start the game against Fulham on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Uruguayan, who completed a move from SL Benfica to Anfield just this summer for a fee of £64m, finished as the Reds’ top goal scorer in the pre-season. All four of his goals came in one game – in the 5-0 win against RB Leipzig.
Carrying a lot of expectations going into the season, owing largely to his price tag, Nunez certainly would be under a lot of pressure to have an impact as immediate as possible.
Klopp commented that “Darwin is ready”, which is a great thing for us Liverpool fans. He is still young but with Roberto Firmino aging and Sadio Mane’s departure, it is fair to expect that Nunez will be a regular starter for us in this season.
“He needs time to get used to a lot of things. He is already a real help. It went really quick. It was a proper pre-season training session for him, the first game”
As natural as it can get, the striker will obviously take time to settle in but Klopp also had to add that Darwin is “in the best possible place” after having a sizeable impact, even in the game against Man City wherein he scored the goal to win Liverpool the FA Community Shield.
With Diogo Jota out due to injury, Klopp has to pick between Nunez and Firmino to start the game at centre-forward. Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah, meanwhile, are expected to start out wide.
Liverpool fans would be eager to watch Nunez in action against Fulham, as the club has signed a proper out-and-out striker after a long time and it would be interesting to see how that changes the way Liverpool play football.
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Firmino can still provide a meaningful contribution to this team, as he did in the game against the Cityzens. Hence, Klopp’s decision on starting either the Uruguayan or the Brazilian could come down to how he envisages playing against a specific option – whether he wants a target man, or a player who can drop deep and selflessly create space for others.
