Steve Nicol wants 24-year-old Liverpool player to be started regularly now

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Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has urged Jurgen Klopp to give Darwin Nunez a run in the team.

Nunez is now without a goal in his past seven Liverpool appearances. However, only four of those have been starts, as Klopp shuffles his pack.

The 24-year-old has still been effective and has registered a couple of assists in that time, including a good one last night for Dominik Szoboszlai. But speaking to ESPN, Nicol said that in order to improve Nunez’s finishing, the manager has to pick him more regularly.

“Personally, I would like to see Nunez get a real solid run to try and get him in a position where when he goes through, when you’re watching it, you know he’s going to score,” said the 61-year-old.

“Because right now, when he goes through, you don’t believe that he’s going to score.

“He had one today [vs Sheffield United], one on one with goalkeeper, and he really hit it straight at the goalkeeper. So, I would like to see him get a run of games without chopping and changing to try and get him a step up.”

Nunez looking for consistency

Throughout his Liverpool career, Nunez is yet to really stamp his mark on the starting XI.

Part of that has been down to little niggly injuries, of which the Uruguayan does have a habit of picking up.

But it’s also true to say that some of it has been because of Darwin simply failing to fully convince, too.

Right now, we’d argue that it’s much more of the former rather than the latter which is keeping Klopp from unleashing Nunez completely.

Although he’s not injured currently, Liverpool will want to be careful with their No.9. There are so many games being played over this period, that the Reds cannot afford to lose him.

The only forward player guaranteed to start every game, or near-enough every game, is Mohamed Salah. Between the other three options – and Diogo Jota when he’s fit – they’ll start some, and come off the bench in others.

We can see how that can be disruptive to rhythm, especially for an instinct player like Nunez. But even if he isn’t scoring, the Uruguay international is still very much contributing.

His finishing is of course a bit of a worry, and you do feel as though it may cost Liverpool at some stage. For the time being though, we don’t see Nicol getting his wish anytime soon. When the schedule eases up a little, then perhaps he will. At the minute though, protecting Darwin’s fitness is the priority.