Brace boy Darwin Nunez earns Jurgen Klopp plaudits

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp praised Darwin Nunez's attitude after the striker scored twice – including the 1,000th goal of the manager’s reign – in a comfortable 5-1 Europa League victory over Sparta Prague.

The Uruguay international took his tally for the season to 16 – just two behind Mohamed Salah who had a goal disallowed by VAR on his return from injury – with a performance which was a perfect warm-up for Sunday’s visit of Premier League title rivals Manchester City.

After an up-and-down first season following his potential club record move from Benfica, the 24-year-old has found more consistency this season and but for a touch more luck would have been pushing Salah as leading scorer.

"He had absolutely more than an OK first season but he had to adapt, that’s done, and he is settled in the middle of the team," said Klopp after the last-16 first leg, which has put them within touching distance of the quarter-finals of the only trophy he has not won in his Liverpool career.

"Wonderful guy, wonderful boy. He loves to play for this team together with these boys and has quality coming out of his ears, to be honest.

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"It’s like strikers are, they score and then they don’t score. Is he at his absolute peak in general? Not now for us. But can he develop? Yes. Is he a threat all the time? Yes.

"He has the most important attitude a striker needs to have; he missed chances but all strikers are doing that but he is not bothered by it and just keeps going.

"That’s why he now has a nice