Arne Slot has explained his decision to start Darwin Nunez in Liverpool’s latest Champions League tie at home to Lille, following his two goals against Brentford.
Slot opted for partial rotation with Liverpool hosting Lille in their penultimate Champions League clash, with Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah and Curtis Jones coming in along with Nunez.
It is far from a weakened side, particularly on the back of Nunez’s match-winning brace against Brentford, and the head coach is hoping for another performance from his No. 9.
That came through in Slot’s pre-match interview with Amazon Prime, when he was asked whether those two goals prompted his decision to start Nunez.
“Not only that. Cody has played many, many games recently and Darwin has always done well,” he explained.
“It’s not just because he’s scored two and now all of a sudden he starts.
“I have, at the moment, four players available that can start the game and today I chose these three.”
Those four players are, of course, Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz, with Diogo Jota out injured and Federico Chiesa still not considered fit enough to start.
The onus is on Nunez to rise to the challenge then, though Slot insisted he has always been happy with his output despite only four goals and four assists in 26 games before Saturday.
“I think that’s what it’s all about,” he continued.
“If you play at a club like Liverpool, these players know even better than me that it’s not about being once in a while a good player, it’s all about showing up every three days.
“It’s not enough winning a few games, the standards here are winning every single game you play. You have to perform.
“Perform doesn’t always mean you have to score or assist, because what Darwin has done really well until now – since I’m here, but I think before that as well – he always puts a lot, a lot, a lot of effort in.
“That’s also part of being a No. 9.”
While Gakpo, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate and Alexis Mac Allister were given a break, victory is still the target as Liverpool aim to finish top of the table.
Avoid defeat to Lille and the Reds at least bypass the playoff phase to land straight in the last 16, though Slot was keen to stress that the French side – unbeaten in 21 games – would not be “an easy task.”
“That’s also why we’ve played so many times with a very strong lineup. We would prefer not to play the two games extra,” he explained.
“You cannot always get what you are hoping for, but we are trying to achieve this by putting again today a very strong lineup in, to make sure we don’t have to play those two games.
“But Lille has shown already against Madrid, Atletico and Juve how difficult it is to beat this team.
“So it’s not going to be an easy task, but we are going to go for it.”
