Though it is clear that Darwin Nunez is still at odds with Arne Slot‘s setup at Liverpool, the head coach has blamed himself for a lack of goals up front.
Nunez made his third start of the season in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Bologna, but was brought off on the hour with Slot visibly frustrated in his technical area.
It was the earliest the Uruguayan has been substituted in his outings under the new head coach so far, with it evident that Diogo Jota remains first choice.
This has raised a familiar debate around Liverpool’s No. 9, who has continued to struggle for consistency ever since his £85 million move from Benfica.
But in his pre-Crystal Palace press conference, Slot shifted the focus onto himself as he and his staff look to coax more goals from their strikers.
“It’s both,” he said when asked whether Nunez still needed to adapt or if it was a case of working with his existing qualities.
“I think it’s the challenge we as a staff always have, to bring the best out of individuals.
“We try to find different ways of positioning Darwin than Diogo, because they are not the same players. So their teammates also adjust to the player they are playing with.
“That’s what I as a manager have to do and what we are doing.
“Yes, he didn’t score in his last game, because he was offside as well.
“So when we bring him the chances he’s able to score, but unfortunately we couldn’t bring him that much in the position we want to.
“If I’m completely honest, which I like to be, even Diogo didn’t have [enough goals].
“I think most of the goals we’ve scored have come from our wingers until now and Diogo scored two when we played West Ham – and then he played the No. 10 position.
“So maybe it’s also something for us to look at, although we score a lot of goals, to bring our striker – if it’s Diogo or Darwin – even more in positions to score.”
Jota, who is expected to return to the starting lineup for Saturday’s 12.30pm kickoff at Palace, is averaging a goal every 177.7 minutes so far this season compared to one in 307 minutes for Nunez.
Liverpool’s top scorer, Mohamed Salah, is averaging a goal every 124 minutes while Luis Diaz, who has netted five times, is scoring at a rate of one every 105.6 minutes.
