Darwin Nunez’ horror miss against Manchester Untied prompted Jurgen Klopp to discuss his marquee signing’s performance in Bangkok, explaining that the young striker was playing with “massive” blisters on his feet.
Nunez came off the bench for Liverpool after his club-record transfer from Benfica this summer, after he had impressed against Liverpool in the Champions League.
United would go on to defeat Liverpool comfortably in their pre-season outing, with goals from Jadon Sancho, Fred and Anthony Martial putting United 3-0 up at the break, before Facundo Pellistri rounded off the scoring in the second half.
United fielded a strong team and held the advantage throughout the game, despite having a week longer in pre-season training than Liverpool. United made ten outfield changes at halftime, while Liverpool used three different outfield lineups, with Jurgen Klopp making wholesale changes at the 30- and 60-minute marks.
Liverpool came closest to scoring in the final half-hour, when Mo Salah’s shot hit the post and rebounded to Nunez, who missed the target completely.
When asked about Nunez’s performance after the game, Klopp gave a detailed response, adding that he believes Liverpool asked a lot of him in his first appearance.
Klopp said: “He is a number nine who can play on the wing as well. We will see where he plays. But what you could see is the boys were already searching for him. It was his third session (since arriving for pre-season training) and I think after the third sprint his lungs were ready to explode. We nearly killed him these balls but he offered the runs and the boys wanted to pass the ball, that is for sure one of his strengths. He was dangerous. His profile is a proper number nine so that’s helpful with speed and aggression and using his body.
“I understand we have to talk about it that early, but for us it makes absolutely no sense. Fabio is here for eight days and Darwin for three days and has massive blisters on his feet, and we’ve all experienced that in our life and it doesn’t feel any different for a professional football player, it is really painful.”
