Uruguayan international Darwin Nunez has struggled to move into the new role of centre-forward following the appointment of Arne Slot, and his goal scoring figures have been poor.
Rumours of a move to AC Milan or Saudi Arabia have also gained momentum, and the argument that he will leave Anfield at the end of the season is becoming more and more apparent.
Unlike Jurgen Klopp, who believed in attacking quickly once the ball was taken, the 25-year-old forward, who is not the most dexterous of players, has spent more and more time on the bench in a style that is more focused on ball possession.
However, against Brentford, he came on as a midway substitute and scored two goals in quick succession in added time. He contributed to a dramatic victory.
The Uruguayan striker has been gaining a lot of praise, but head coach Arne Slot stressed that he was satisfied with his performance, regardless of the two goals.
“One of you asked me similar things before the game about Darwin and I didn’t agree then that he’s not having a good season,”
“I think he’s having a good season. He scores goals, he works very hard for the team, he assists.”
“But he’s in competition with a lot of good players. So that’s why he’s not every single game on the pitch. But I’m very happy with him, not only because he scored two goals today, that of course helps, but I’m very happy with the other performances he put in for us as well.”
“But if it’s about strikers or if it’s about the team, if we would not have scored today in the last five minutes, then the headlines would have been ‘Liverpool drops points again’. No one would have told you 37 shots on target – what a display.”
“How many teams were able against Brentford to have 37 shots on target during a game? Now, because of our scoring too, probably there’s a bit of emphasis on that fact as well.”
“This is the industry we work in, as a manager, the team, the players, we all accept this and we all understand this, that there’s a lot of focus on if it doesn’t go well and not as much on the fact if you have a great performance.”
“We are an industry where it’s about winning and losing and not about if you play beautiful football. People only enjoy good football, beautiful football, if you win, otherwise there’s no focus at all on the performance.”