Arne Slot opens up on Darwin Nunez chat before RB Leipzig clash

Arne Slot has revealed that he asked Darwin Nunez to find the net before the striker delivered the match-winning goal for Liverpool in their Champions League clash against RB Leipzig.

The Reds maintained their perfect record in Europe with a hard-fought victory in Germany.

Nunez, who had only scored once this season prior to the match, found himself in the right place at the right time, poking home from close range.

Although Mohamed Salah’s header appeared to be heading into the net, Núñez ensured it crossed the line.

Despite ongoing doubts regarding his scoring consistency, Darwin Nunez showed resilience.

His slow start to the season has not helped boost his confidence, but he continues to have the trust of his manager.

The striker’s performance was a testament to their pre-match conversation, where Slot expressed his belief in Núñez’s potential to deliver.

Slot told TNT Sports: “I asked for a goal.

“He gave us one but in the lead-up to the goal, Gakpo was important and Mo with an assist.

“It was a team goal. It’s pleasing to see that Darwin did a really good job today.”

Speaking after the post-match press conference Slot added: “I’m always happy when we score a goal and I’m not that much into it who scores it. It is always good to see all of our players scoring goals and I think in the lead-up to the goal, Cody [Gakpo] and Mo [Salah] were just as important in the goal as Darwin was.

What I liked from Darwin was that he was also strong, comfortable on the ball, kept the ball a lot, fighting if he had to defend, so he made it a really difficult game for the two centre-backs of Leipzig.

“And then for him scoring, I think that is always nice for a striker to be on the scoresheet.

“I don’t think we started the game really well in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but after that I liked a lot what I saw.

“Many, many, many times we played through their press, opened up their midfield and went for an attack.

“That led to the first goal, that led to a few chances – more than a few and then in the end it’s a pity that you still need your two centre-backs to play such a big game and your goalkeeper to make two such important saves because a game like this should have been ours after 60, 70 minutes and it wasn’t. That’s why the last 20 were still difficult for us.”

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