Darwin Nunez’s finishing has come under question this season as he has missed 27 big chances in the Premier League this season. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Nunez has been “unlucky” and that “his problem is that he is that good that he is constantly in these moments”. Liverpool face Aston Villa in the Premier League on Monday evening as they chase an unlikely title. Jurgen Klopp has launched a strong defence of Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez, saying there is “no speculation” over his future and he has been “unlucky in so many situations”.
Nunez’s finishing has been under scrutiny since he joined Liverpool in a club-record £85m deal from Benfica two years ago.
He has missed 27 big chances in the Premier League this season – behind only Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (32) – and recently deleted almost all Liverpool-related posts from his Instagram profile. But Klopp has come to Nunez’s defence, saying: “There’s no speculation. That must be an external speculation, because I don’t know about it.
“Darwin was definitely not happy missing that chance [against Spurs]. He was unlucky in so many situations, where he’s doing everything right, then the ball still doesn’t go in.
“It’s really tough for a young man. He knows about the expectations, he has big expectations for himself. He has to go through it. It’s part of a footballer’s career. That’s all.
“His problem is that he is that good that he is constantly in these moments. If he is a little bit less good, he couldn’t have chances then people would say he’s not great.
“How may goals did he score? 18 [overall] and 11 [in the league], not bad numbers. It’s just because of his quality, constantly in these situations, then people say ‘eh?’
“And because of our situation as a team, if somebody else would score in that moment, people wouldn’t have felt that bad. Nobody likes it, but it’s part of a career. That’s it.”
Liverpool have faltered in recent weeks as their Premier League title challenge has been all-but ended and they were knocked out of the UEFA Europa League at the quarter-final stage.
With five points to make up on leaders Arsenal and four on Manchester City, Klopp admits it’s difficult to see Liverpool, who have two games of the season remaining, catching up.
Klopp said: “We can see the table, we can all read the situation.
“Do we expect them to lose three games? City have to lose three games – difficult to see that. But you never know. Arsenal have to lose two games – difficult. Both play before us, if they both lose let’s talk about it, but I don’t expect that.
“We have the chance to go above 80 points again. Like everything in life, you should never take things like this for granted.”
Liverpool finish Klopp’s final season with a trip to Aston Villa on Monday before hosting Wolves on the last weekend.
They go into the Villa fixture on the back of a 4-2 victory over Tottenham that saw them rediscover their scoring touch.
“It was a really good game – I liked it a lot,” said Klopp.
“It was a good game. What we needed, what we wanted, what the people deserved to see. We spoke about why we didn’t make it in these three to four weeks before that happened for different reasons, but that’s how it is and if we are 100% honest, is that the season where we were the best team in the league? “We had our moments, we played our best game in our history against Man City but didn’t win it. It’s always small margins, if you win these kinds of games that can open up something. We didn’t win it and then in the first moment when it looked like we struggled slightly we got really punished for it.”