Jurgen Klopp believes Darwin Nunez has made significant recent improvements at Liverpool, but is confident there is plenty more to come.
The striker came off the bench in midweek against Napoli and scored deep into stoppage-time, his run of five goals in seven matches an impressive record considering Liverpool’s inconsistent form and his own struggles to become a regular starter.
It comes after a frustrating period during the opening weeks of Nunez’s Liverpool career, particularly following his red card for a headbutt on Joachim Anderson, and Klopp feels the 23-year-old is beginning to settle at the club.
“Yeah, big steps, big steps,” Klopp said. “And still space for improvement because the boy’s an incredible package.
“You could see immediately he is a real threat in the finishing area. Involved in a lot of things.
“You then realise a few big chances he missed, imagine he would have scored from them as well. He’s involved in pretty much everything. He’s always an option to pass to or cross the ball to.
“He came on, didn’t play extremely long but involved in both goals. It’s good, it’s big steps.”
Nunez will hope to be involved this weekend as Liverpool travel to face Tottenham in their penultimate Premier League match before the World Cup.
Defeat would leave the Reds 13 points behind Spurs and even further off the pace in the top-four race, with the sizeable gap between the two sides meaning that Liverpool have little choice but to go on the offensive.
“It’s a big game for us, difficult as well,” Klopp said. “I didn’t count the points difference between us and then but we cannot be picky with points, we have to go for it.
“They are well organised in defending. Their counter-attack is a massive thing. You saw their offensive power. They have scored goals in the last minutes lately, so we are prepared for a confident, strong opponent.
“What I can say is I never once thought before going to Tottenham, ‘now is a good time to face Tottenham’. It will be a tough one but that’s what we all want. It’s like a Champions League game in the Premier League and that’s how we’ll approach it.”
