Bielsa offers Liverpool transfer advice on ‘astonishing’ Darwin Nunez as he names star’s ‘only weakness’

Liverpool manager Arne Slot has been told he can build his Reds attack around Darwin Nunez after receiving a glowing appraisal on the Uruguay striker from his iconic former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa – but he has warned the Reds of the one area of improvement he must work on.

Nunez moved to Anfield in a summer 2022 move from Benfica, with the now 25-year-old costing Liverpool an initial €75m (£63.5m) but what will amount to a club record fee of €100m (£84.8m) once add-ons are factored in. However, despite a scoring record of 33 goals in 96 appearances while on Merseyside, it has not been all plain sailing for the striker.

Indeed, Nunez has been dogged by claims he is too profligate in front of goal, often accused of needing three or four chances before he will score. An instictive striker, there are also those who believe that if he is given too long to decide how to finish a move, he will more often than not take the wrong option.

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As a result, speculation over his future at Anfield has ramped up in recent weeks, with Nunez adding fuel to the situation by bizarrely deleting all records of his time at Liverpool across his social media account on Instagram.

At the time, that prompted former Reds boss Jurgen Klopp to launch a staunch defence of both Nunez’s activity and around his future at Anfield, using one of his final press conferences as Liverpool boss to insist all was fine with the player and that he expects him to remain on Merseyside.

However, Slot has since been linked with a number of different striker options this summer, amid claims he wants to bring in a more prolific No 9 at Anfield.

Liverpool news: Bielsa has lovely words for Darwin Nunez

To that end, the likes of Feyenoord striker Santiago Gimenez, Napoli dangerman Victor Osimhen and Sporting Lisbon’s prolific Viktor Gyokeres are among the bigger names to have been linked with a move to Anfield this summer.

However, it is a different story for Nunez when it comes to playing for his country. His national manager, Bielsa, appears to have revived both the country’s fortunes and the Reds’ No 9’s too – something Leeds fans will very much relate to from his time in the Elland Road after he transformed a side that finished 13th the previous season into promotion contenders the next.

And Nunez, who has five goals in his last three games for Uruguay, including two already at this year’s Copa America, with the nation sitting pretty at the top of Group C with two wins from two.

Now asked if he is worried by Nunez, a player he has previously described as “astonishing”, missing more chances than he scores, Bielsa insists that both Liverpool and Uruguay have a very much at the top of his game and believes simply by showing one’s appreciation of the player is the best way to get him firing.

Furthermore, he has indicated that Nunez knows exactly what it means to play for the Reds and has the mentaility to succeed at Anfield.

“Darwin is a player who doesn’t need any kind of support,” Bielsa told a press conference.

“You have to know what it means to play for Liverpool and who he competes with, and what his cycles were like, when he converted, when he stopped converting, why he stopped converting. These are things that he manages in proportion to the place he occupies in the football world.”

Bielsa names only Nunez weakness as striker compliments teammates

Bielsa has, however, has suggested that while Nunez can sometimes be wasteful in front of goal, he is adamant that the rewards will come if you keep feeding him the chances.

“The only thing that worries me is that he is able to do what he does in an extraordinary way as many times as possible, which is converting, defining, finishing the actions, choosing where he should direct the shot that provides the right conditions to execute it.

“I insist, it would be a contradiction for me to say that what has value are the goals because I am saying the opposite. What is the best way to accompany that where he does not need company because he has shown that he can solve it on his own? Trying to give him a lot of balls to score goals.”

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Nunez, meanwhile, has thanked the advice and help he gets from former Liverpool striker and Uruguay teammate Luis Suarez.

“More than anything, you always need the support of your teammates,” Nunez said. “I think that in the national team today we have a beautiful group, a group that if a player is bad, we know that references like Luis Suarez are going to come, who is always there, giving advice.

“I always try to get together with him, to talk about football things, about his past. He is always there to give me advice and I take everything as positive and try applying it.”

Nunez scored 18 times in all competitions for Liverpool last season from 54 appearances, adding 13 assists, giving him a goal contribution every 1.74 matches.