Pep Lijnders shares what Liverpool coaches are doing to help Darwin Nunez

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Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders says the Reds coaching team are fully behind Darwin Nunez.

Nunez has come in for plenty of criticism of late, having failed to score in 10 games. After a terrific start to the season, the Uruguayan has hit the buffers. But filling in for Jurgen Klopp in the pre-West Ham United press conference today, Lijnders gave his backing to Nunez.

“Darwin is full of desire, you see this in each game,” said the Dutchman. “If we would only judge players on goals that would be so unfair. In our way when we were really there to compete it was always about the collective, that always made the difference.

“I feel above everything that Darwin is playing a much better season than last year. The way he defends for the team, how he controls the centre and puts pressure, how he chases back. His counter-press as well. He helps us a lot when we are deep and we can play with him as a reference. He does that much better. He becomes much more our striker.

“It’s a long time we played with a false nine, and now it’s Darwin Nunez who’s always in the last line, sometimes too high, offside sometimes! But he’s learning and I like a lot. This guy is full of fire and that’s what our stadium likes and that’s what we need as well.”

Asked what Liverpool coaches are doing to help Nunez out of his slump, Lijnders also sounded a positive note. “We sit together, we do individual meetings, we show images,” said the assistant. “We have a really good relationship, all of us [coaches], not only me. He feels our trust and that’s what we can give him.”

Lijnders back Nunez

Lijnders words come fresh off the back of praise for Nunez from Klopp today, too.

The 24-year-old may be struggling a little to find the net just at the moment, but it must be said that he’s taken great strides over the past year.

Unfortunately, that still won’t be enough for some people. Darwin cost Liverpool a big fee when they bought him in 2022 and he’s still yet to properly repay that.

Although he does still have the backing of the Anfield crowd, you could noticeably hear that starting to turn just ever so slightly at the weekend.

It’s funny that Lijnders mentions the offsides, because that’s what has really began to irritate fans about Nunez. They can forgive the misses and goal droughts but once you start doing the basics wrong, then they’ll run out of sympathy pretty fast.

We’re not at that stage with Nunez, but you can’t help but shake the feeling that we might be edging slightly closer towards it.

The Uruguay international certainly has plenty of credit in the bank with a crowd that love his heart-on-the-sleeve attitude. But there certainly does need to be more of a pay-off than there currently is.

Let’s hope that Darwin starts putting some of what Lijnders, Klopp and the rest are telling him into action.