Arne Slot admits not subbing Darwin Nunez “for quite a long time” in hope of goal boost

Arne Slot has admitted he kept Darwin Nunez on “for quite a long time” against Girona as he hoped the Uruguayan could score a much-needed goal for his confidence.

While Liverpool’s first 1-0 win wasn’t a vintage performance, it was certainly a performance worthy of three points against a Girona side that were forced to sit in their own final third for the majority of the second half.

Mo Salah‘s penalty was the only goal of the game, but it came at a time when Liverpool were knocking on the door and looked to be on the brink of breaking the opposition down.

As the Reds striker, Nunez couldn’t capitalise on his team’s dominance and missed two big chances, according to FotMob, before coming off after 70 minutes.

Having not scored since Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa on November 9, Slot was asked after the match if he agreed that his forward is low on confidence.

The coach replied: “What I can agree on is that he missed a few chances then it’s always a question, ‘Does this have anything to do with lower confidence or is this the situation where he is in at the moment?’

“I think every striker all around the world has periods where every ball goes in and sometimes he has a period where you try so hard but you are not able to score.

“The good thing is that we have many players that can score for us. Today, Mo again, but I would love to have seen Darwin score because I think every striker wants to score and needs goals. That’s why I kept him in for quite a long time.

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“He was a threat but unfortunately couldn’t score because yes, Alisson made a lot of saves, but I think if you made highlights of this game, we will see a few chances that we had as well which is something, is normal.

“What is not normal is that we concede so many chances.”

As Slot says, strikers do go through barren patches in their careers, but what worries fans about Nunez isn’t just his lack of goals.

The 25-year-old isn’t performing well in his all-round play either, at the moment.

Against Girona, he completed just half of his eight passes, worse than his 67 percent completion rate against Newcastle.

Fans don’t need statistics, though, to see that the much-supported striker is underperforming.

His link-up play has never been world-class, but when the goals dry up too, you have to question what he brings that a talented youngster like Jayden Danns can’t.