Virgil van Dijk believes Darwin Nunez is now beginning to realise his potential at Liverpool – and pointed to the competition for places in Jurgen Klopp’s goal-laden attack as a contributory factor.
Nunez has enjoyed an impressive start to his second season at Anfield having suffered an at times difficult debut campaign following his arrival in the summer of 2022 for what could become a club record fee of £85million.
The Uruguay international had a hand in all three goals in Thursday’s 3-1 Europa League win over LASK in Austria, slotting home the equaliser from the spot, involved in the build-up to Luis Diaz scoring the second and assisting substitute Mohamed Salah for the third.
Nunez stepped off the bench to score twice in the win at Newcastle United last month, played key roles in two goals against Aston Villa and was pivotal in Liverpool’s second-half revival at Wolves last weekend when again emerging as substitute.
The 24-year-old will hope he has done enough to retain his place for the Premier League visit of West Ham United on Sunday having scored the winner in the fixture last season.
And with Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota also vying for a role, Van Dijk is convinced the Liverpool forwards – who have scored 11 of the Reds’ 15 goals this season – are driving each other to improve.
“Everyone has a role to play whether you start or not,” said the Liverpool skipper. “Everyone has now seen the potential and the quality Darwin has.
“Up front, the competition is quite good. They all have to push each other and it’s good to see. Against LASK, Darwin was important with the goal. Long may it continue, and with the other boys as well.”
When the equalising penalty was awarded against LASK, Van Dijk made a point of holding on to the ball and standing by the spot before Nunez stepped up – echoing similar actions from his predecessor as skipper, Jordan Henderson.
“It’s pretty obvious really,” explained Van Dijk. “You have to make sure you protect at least the penalty spot. It’s a bit of a mind game there in the end, maybe they were going to try and get in your head. It was always the plan that Darwin was going to take it, and I’m glad he scored.”
Liverpool made 11 changes for the game, one of which saw another forward, 17-year-old winger Ben Doak, make his first senior start. The Scotland under-21 international had moments of promise before being substituted on the hour, and Van Dijk said: “It was a big night for him. It was never going to be easy.
“It was a difficult pitch, but he could have set up at least two goals in the first half where he went past his man like no-one was there, but unfortunately nobody was on the end of it. I am pleased for him and I’m also very excited for him and the future that’s coming.”
The Reds have come from behind to win in four of their ongoing run of five successive victories that they will look to extend with the Premier League visit of West Ham United on Sunday.
And of Liverpool’s regained resilience, Van Dijk said: “That’s something to be proud of. It should be like that. We have the quality to make a difference. Whether you start or are on the bench, you always have to have that belief and it looks like we definitely do.
“You’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, if you watch closely it’s a fantastic group to be part of. We have a lot of quality, a lot of younger players, players who are getting new roles and they are enjoying that as well.
“Everybody wants to play their best football each and every game, but sometimes you have to find a way, like we did at Wolves. On Thursday it was after we conceded a set-piece, we showed that we stayed calm and found a way as well. It’s good to keep working on things that we should improve. It was a good step.”