Press conference'He's a confident person' - Klopp details Darwin Nunez adaptation
Jürgen Klopp discussed in-depth Darwin Nunez's continuing Liverpool adaptation and the next steps for the striker, in the second part of his pre-Arsenal press conference.
The Reds travel to face the Gunners on Sunday afternoon in Premier League action on the weekend the boss celebrates seven years in charge at Anfield.
Taking questions at the AXA Training Centre, he was quizzed on a range of topics ahead of the clash – read on to see what Klopp had to say in the second section...
On the problems facing Liverpool now not being as big as when Klopp joined seven years ago...
Yeah, maybe. I can't remember the problems anymore. Let me go into it, I think, 'OK, what were the problems?' I had no players in that week to train and we had to play Tottenham at the weekend – that was a big problem, to be honest. But I came only on Wednesday and Thursday, and we played Saturday, was it an early kick-off as well? Of course. So, that was my problem, I don't compare. It's not important what was seven years ago, really not. The thing is we have to bring in consistency. That's what I expect from us. Honestly. That's it.
I know with opponents, and stuff like this, you can never get guarantees for results and we never could. But performance level we should start now. And, actually, if you want, the last three games we got seven points. We won against Ajax, we drew against Brighton, and now we won against Rangers. I know it's not in the league, but it's like three rather positive results and Brighton after two-and-a-half weeks' break – stuff like this. You can see it in two ways, but I'm not interested in that too much as well. We are now a bit more in line, so let's go from here. Really the way on the extremely high level the boys delivered in the last few years it is difficult to get that all the time, but we expect it from us, first and foremost, to be 100 per cent honest. And the boys do as well, so now let's go from here.
On what Nunez needs to do to 'improve in front of goal'...
I think he said himself he feels the pressure, these kinds of things. He has to calm himself down. You can see the movements are exceptional and if you would see him finishing in training you would think, 'My God.' But in the games obviously then a bit in a rush. He needs to calm down just in the moment to use his full range of finishing but it's not something – as a striker you just have to feel that. Then it will go from there. So, not to change, just to keep going actually.
On whether people sometimes forget he is still only 23 and may need time to adjust...
Of course, you forget sometimes. He's a kid as well, how they all are in moments. But he's a confident person as well but not a grown-up man already. We all know you can have a baby and still to grow as a man. That's clear but it's all fine. People told me there was the headline that, 'I actually don't understand a word of what he is saying.' Yeah, I know that. It was the same with Bobby Firmino and other players. Bobby, maybe a big part of Bobby's success was that he didn't understand a word what I said! Because he did everything right without understanding me. For Darwin it is now slightly different.
We have a completely different situation, so he gets all the necessary information obviously – Spanish speaker in the coaching staff and in the team, so that's all fine. No, I understand that you ask. I would say it's all fine. It was not a perfect start; he has a three-game suspension. You cannot get rid of them and now this is still here. He's an aggressive player, he's emotional, but this should never happen again and these kinds of things. In between that there are a lot of things, and then the opponents go for him, but I really like his movements, that's really good, that's natural. It's something we didn't have in that way before and that's what I like and that's why I'm sure that everything will be fine.
What is the worst situation what can happen when you come in as a striker into a new team? That your team is not playing exceptionally well because you depend on the things they bring to you, so that's happened. Now we can judge two things, but we cannot, we have to judge one thing in the moment when we perform consistently to our level and beyond. You need a striker to finish all the situations we create then. So, that's it.