Darwin Nunez got off the mark in style with four goals after receiving some early criticism in his Liverpool career... but his teammates were never concerned.
The club-record signing had spurned some early chances in pre-season, which rang early alarm bells with some on social media as he looks to fill the void left the the prolific Sadio Mane. Nunez clearly knows where the goal is, netting 34 times for Benfica last term, and duly highlighted his cutting edge against RB Leipzig, scoring four in a 5-0 thrashing.
Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson has been a stalwart of the Jurgen Klopp era and has seen a host of new faces arrive with varying degrees of expectation. He admits there will always be an adaptation process, but never paid any attention to Nunez's fee. Instead the Reds squad have revelled in seeing their Uruguayan colleague excel so early on as his silenced the doubters.
The Scot said: “The second half was the Darwin show which we are obviously delighted about. Getting off the mark and then adding another three, it’s not too bad. Hopefully there will be many more to come for him.
“It always takes time to get used to new signings, we have all been through it ourselves. It’s no different. There may be outside pressure on him in terms of the fee and everything like that, but to us it doesn’t matter. People have come in on small fees, on big fees, and (to us) it doesn’t matter.
“We know they have to take time to get used to our system and our style of play and how we want them to play. He is adapting, he is getting fitter and stronger like all of us are in pre-season. Today will do him a world of good. It will give him a lot of confidence in front of goal which is obviously so important for a striker.
“We are delighted about that. We didn’t have any worries about him. It’s just about having a bit of time and patience with him. We have got that and hopefully the Liverpool fans have as well.”
Have you say! How many goals will Nunez score next season? Let us know here.
Jurgen Klopp has been keen to defend his new arrival, who was always going to be subjected to more attention following his mega money move. Nunez was only handed 45 minutes against the German outfit, but made his mark.
His boss said: "We always think if you pay a lot of money then the players feel no pressure but they are completely normal human beings! And then if the first touch isn’t perfect and this generation of player read social media, which is really not smart.
"But they do. All of a sudden you get in a rush. But tonight is the best way to stop all of these discussions."
