Liverpool boss Arne Slot faces a Diogo Jota dilemma made worse by Darwin Nunez’s current ban from international football.
Jota has started the season in fine form for Liverpool, operating as the first-choice striker in Slot’s new-look Reds XI.
The Merseyside outfit have boasted a goal threat across their front line, with all three of Jota, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah having found the back of the net so far this season.
And given they’re three from three under new boss Slot, it’s unlikely the Dutch manager will have any reason to change his first-choice starting line-up for the big upcoming matches.
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That’s bad news for Nunez, who had entered the campaign in need of a strong season, after failing to capture the imagination since joining from Benfica for a club-record £85million.
Getting the best out of the hit-and-miss attacker would’ve been high up on Slot’s to-do list after taking over from Jurgen Klopp in the summer.
But, Nunez’s hopes of establishing himself as Slot’s number-one striker pick have taken another blow after the 25-year-old was forced to sit out of this week’s international fixtures.
Typically speaking, a player exerting themselves on international duty would represent bad news for managers, but given Nunez has registered few competitive minutes in recent weeks, the chance to play for Uruguay would’ve been of benefit to both the player and the manager.
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Except, Nunez has remained in Liverpool for the international break because he’s serving a five-game ban after being caught up in a mass brawl during Urugauy’s Copa America campaign.
And given Nunez has played his best football for Liverpool when featuring consistently, his stop-start schedule will do little to help his cause.
It comes after Slot laid down the gauntlet for Nunez earlier this season, with the ex-Feyenoord saying before Liverpool’s first Premier League match of the season the challenge is to: “Bring him as much as we can into scoring positions.”
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He continued: “But again, I think every individual benefits from team performance. If we, as a team, can bring our attackers – not only him, but also the other ones – as much as we can into dangerous positions, these players will score goals.
“That’s also what we’ve seen in pre-season, where we even scored goals out of smaller chances. So it’s up to us to bring him, or Diogo or other attackers, as much as we can into promising positions for them. And then he, like all the others, will score the goals.”
Nunez and Liverpool resume after the international break at home to Nottingham Forest.
