Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez has taken ‘massive’ confidence from his match-winning performance at Newcastle last weekend.
Nunez has started each of Liverpool’s opening three games as a substitute after a mixed first season in the Premier League, but came off the bench to score twice – including a stoppage-time winner – as the Reds came from behind to win 2-1 at Newcastle last weekend.
The 24-year-old’s goals came despite Liverpool playing for more than an hour with 10 men, after Virgil van Dijk’s red card at St James’ Park.
Nunez is in contention to start as Liverpool host Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday and Klopp admits the forward has taken huge confidence as he looks to kick-start his career with the club.
“Massive [confidence from Sunday], that’s clear,” Klopp said at his pre-match press conference.
“Exactly how it should have been, being a massive threat. Everyone could feel it, this game was massive. It looked like the game was going against us and the boys fought out of that, pretty impressive.”
Klopp provided an update on his team ahead of the clash with Villa and confirmed that Ibrahima Konate has joined the suspended Van Dijk on the sidelines.
Thiago Alcantara has also suffered a setback in his recovery from injury, though Curtis Jones and Stefan Bajcetic have returned to training.
“Thiago has had a little setback after starting training with the team. He has to slow down a little bit. It’s not cool for him or for us. Hopefully after the international break (he’ll be back).
On Konate’s absence, Klopp added: “It’s deadline day so I don’t want to kill the excitement of the people so you never know. But I’m busy today with other things. If we could bring in a centre-half for a weekend I’d think about it! Ibou, no (he’s out).”
