Jason McAteer has detailed how Darwin Nunez struggled in pre-season for Liverpool last year, with the striker taking his time to get to grips with Jurgen Klopp’s tactics.
Speaking on the Debrief, the former Liverpool midfielder revealed that the Uruguay international found it difficult to adjust to his new side having signed from Benfica earlier in the window, with Nunez infamously being criticised for some training videos in pre-season.
One year on, though, and the 24-year-old is in a much better place, with Nunez expected to star for Liverpool next season alongside the likes of Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz in the attack, who the striker could form a partnership with in pre-season.
However, problems at the start were evidently there. McAteer said: “I remember being away with them on pre-season tour last season, we had a game in Thailand and a game in Singapore and Nunez had just come in. And he worked and worked and worked with Nunez and he just wasn’t comfortable.
“He couldn’t do what they wanted him to do, they tried, they were stopping sessions, asking him to press. But you have to understand from a player’s point of view, he had just come from a completely different country and a completely different philosophy of football team.”
Nunez will want to shine for Liverpool this summer in pre-season
The criticism Nunez endured last summer was unfair, to say the least. Yet 12 months on, the attacker is now settled at Liverpool and now familiar with the system he will be playing week-in-week-out next season. And the South American will want to prove his quality this pre-season.
As we know, many Liverpool fans and pundits want to see Nunez explode onto the scene next year. And a strong summer with good performances in friendlies will give the forward the perfect platform to impress supporters and his peers heading into the new campaign.
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