ESPN pundit thinks 24-year-old Liverpool player has got to start vs West Ham tonight

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Jurgen Klopp has to keep mis-firing Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez in his team to take on West Ham United tonight.

Nunez has come in for some criticism of late, with the Uruguayan having now gone ten games without a goal for the Reds.

But with a Carabao Cup quarter-final against the Hammers to come this evening, ESPN FC pundit Craig Burley has told Klopp to persist with Nunez.

“What is it, no goals in 10, something like that?” Burley questioned. “Lucky to stay on the field at the weekend. People might disagree with that but if Michael Oliver is applying the laws that he did for Diogo Dalot, then being booked for kicking the ball away then applauding the referee directly after it meant he should have been red carded.

“So he needs to get his head back in the game, both in terms of his discipline, his mind-set and more importantly his goal scoring. So I would play him [tonight].”

Nunez back for West Ham start

It will be interesting to see what Klopp does with his forward line this evening.

Having all played so poorly against Manchester United, you wouldn’t say that any of them are especially banging the door down to start. Unfortunately for him, Nunez is probably bottom of that list, too.

The former Benfica man is still being backed to the hilt by those who have seen him up close. Just yesterday, quotes emerged from Ben Foster who shared what James Milner had to say to him about Darwin.

Assistant manager Pep Lijnders also said that the coaching team at Liverpool still believe in him and are doing what they can to help.

But nevertheless, the goals need to start coming back soon. We’re not sure we are quite with Burley in terms of the indiscipline. Nunez hasn’t shown too much in the way of that for a while. It’s more a case of him missing chances and not playing well.

Either way though, things need to improve. With a big game coming against Arsenal on Saturday, maybe it would be wise to attempt to let Darwin play his way into form, starting tonight.

But at the same time, Liverpool can’t really afford another toothless performance. Saturday is the biggest game of the season so far and they need to go into it in good shape.

Just now, you’d have to say that starting Nunez again doesn’t look like the best way of doing that.