Sidelined Nunez a symptom of Liverpool’s slow start

Darwin Nunez is different from the strikers Liverpool had before him: Jurgenn Klopp (Reuters Photo)

As Liverpool’s fading Premier League title aspirations took another hit in a 3-3 shootout with Brighton, the club’s major summer signing Darwin Nunez watched on from the bench for 89 minutes.

The Uruguayan, recruited from Benfica for an initial 75-million-euro ($73 million, £66 million) fee that could rise to 100 million euros, has found himself regularly sidelined by Jurgen Klopp in the early months of his Liverpool career despite a concerning start to the season for the Reds.

Liverpool has won just three of their opening nine games of the campaign to fall already 11 points off the pace in the Premier League and with work to do to reach the last 16 of the Champions League ahead of Rangers’ visit to Anfield on Tuesday.

Nunez scored twice in his first two appearances as Liverpool beat Manchester City in the Community Shield and salvaged a 2-2 draw at Fulham on the opening weekend of the season.

But he has since failed to find the net and started just once since being sent off on his home debut for a headbutt on Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen in August.

Realising Nunez’s potential is far from the only issue Klopp has to resolve.

He described the ease with which Brighton played through the Liverpool midfield as “horrendous” and a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Napoli in the Champions League last month as a “horror show”.

The spotlight on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defensive weaknesses have helped mask Virgil van Dijk’s alarming dip in form.

There remains hope for Nunez that he can follow in the footsteps of Andy Robertson and Fabinho as players that took months to adjust to Klopp’s demands before becoming bedrocks of the