Darwin Nunez was credited by Jurgen Klopp after the disgruntled striker came off the bench to score twice as Liverpool, down one player, overcame Newcastle United to defeat them 2-1 in a thrilling Premier League match on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Uruguayan hasn’t played much so far this season, but his late brace against the Magpies showed the best in him, and Klopp promised Sky Sports that he will receive more opportunities.
“He was obviously fired up about not playing, not starting, and he put all the energy into those two shots … it was a super-mature performance and two top-class goals,” a delighted Klopp said as he reflected on what he described as one of the best victories of his career.
After falling behind in the first half and having their captain Virgil van Dijk sent for a foul on Alexander Isak, Liverpool appeared to be battening down the hatches when forward Luis Diaz was substituted by center defender Joe Gomez.
Nunez answered with two late goals to rescue win for the Reds from certain defeat, increasing his prospects of receiving more playing time as a result of Klopp’s last-ditch gamble.
“It’s early in the season, you need to find stability. We need to find a formation you need to get results, and then we play every three days and everybody will play, there’s no doubt about that,” Klopp explained.
“Definitely, a striker scores two goals and you can see he gets a smile on his face, and rightly so. But for the team, it was super-important that they got something like that, you need these kinds of things to grow together,” Klopp added.
Newcastle will have to play catch-up in the league after suffering back-to-back 1-0 losses to Manchester City and Liverpool, and manager Eddie Howe acknowledged it will be difficult to motivate his players.
“There was a lot of good, we should have put the game to bed and that is probably the thing we are all kicking ourselves with,” Howe told Sky Sports.
“There will be a lot of emotion. For us, we’ve had three really tough opening games, won one and lost two. The two we lost were lost by the narrowest of margins, and they were against the best two teams in the Premier League,” he added.
