Liverpool duo Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker have both agreed that Darwin Nunez’s slow start to life at the club is partly due to settling into a new country.
Nunez was signed by the Reds this summer for an upfront fee of £64.2millionalongside a further £21.5million in attainable add-ons. Nunez bagged an impressive 34 goals in all competitions for Benfica last season – including in both legs of their European clash against the Reds at the quarter-final stage.
The Uruguayan headed the only goal of the game as the Reds beat West Ham in Wednesday night’s Premier League action – his fourth goal across the Premier League and Champions League this season – to help show Jurgen Klopp’s team what they had been missing in attack.
Liverpool are the striker’s fourth club since 2019 in a whirlwind four years which has taken him from Penarol in his native Uruguay to Anfield, via spells at Spanish club Almeria and Portuguese giants Benfica.
Wednesday night’s header was his fifth goal in all competitions in just his fifth start although there had been concern that the striker had been showing erratic form and had yet to hit the heights of recent seasons, but this has been dismissed by his teammates.
Van Dijk explained of the striker: “I think he has so much potential, he’s still young, he’s learning, he’s learning the way we play, he’s learning English and he’s the modern day striker that causes defenders problems and you can see it today, his runs in behind and build-up play is getting better.
"We have different weapons to try and exploit opponents and that’s good.”
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Goalkeeper Alisson added on giving Nunez advice: “We’re helping him a lot, we keep him really close. He’s a really good lad, I know it’s not easy, really difficult to settle into a different country.
"When I come here, I knew a little bit more English than him, he’s learning, working hard on that, not only on the pitch but to learn English.
“He’s a disciplined man, not a boy, I’m getting old. We’re trying to help him, help Lucho [Luis Diaz] and be a strong team who works together, sticks together all the time when we are at the training ground or outside the pitch, we spend time together. It’s not just important for him but his family, all our families.”
Nunez broke the deadlock against the Hammers by rising brilliantly to nod a Kostas Tsimikas cross into the far corner after avoiding Kurt Zouma and getting isolated against the less experienced Thilo Kehrer.
He could have added a second soon after following a defensive lapse from West Ham, with the goal appearing to give him confidence to look for more.
