Darwin Nunez was the source of plenty of frustration in his cameo against Aston Villa and reporters were not going to miss the chance to ask Arne Slot about his No. 9 after a huge miss.
The majority of Nunez’s 1,710 minutes this season have come off the bench with Slot clearly favouring Luis Diaz in the centre-forward role, plus Diogo Jota when fit.
In six of his last seven outings, Nunez has come off the bench and failed to make a contribution on the scoresheet. In fact, his last goal contribution was his match-winning brace at Brentford.
He had the opportunity to change that at Villa Park when subbed on for the final 24 minutes, but he lifted his big chance over the crossbar when an open goal was begging from Dominik Szoboszlai‘s pass.
It has been the topic of discussion after the draw as it highlighted the glaring need for Liverpool to invest in the position, and Slot was asked for his view of the chance after the fact.
Aston Villa 2-2 Liverpool
“What I saw was an unbelievable pass from Conor Bradley, and what a power run from Dominik Szoboszlai who made, in my opinion, made the perfect choice to square it,” Slot told reporters.
“From a one-v-one with the goalkeeper, he made it an open goal chance. And then Darwin, it was not his best leg, he is right-footed of course.
• READ: Nunez’s ‘career at LFC is over’ – ‘plays like he knows it too’
“It was still a big chance, very unlucky and I was hoping he could have got another one because a player like him probably wouldn’t miss two chances in a row.
“He was very close afterwards when he went towards Martinez again, but Martinez made a great sliding tackle to win the ball.
“I think we are all disappointed, but it’s normal that a player that misses a chance like this is always a bit more disappointed than the rest.”
There will be plenty of lingering disappointment but Liverpool cannot allow the same feeling to follow the trip to Man City on Sunday.
