Jurgen Klop saluted how Darwin Nunez’s reaction to his missed penalty in Liverpool’s routing of Chelsea.
The Reds earned a 4-1 victory at Anfield to regain a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table. The hosts were imperious throughout the encounter, with Diogo Jota and Conor Bradley giving Liverpool the lead before half-time.
Moments before the interval, Nunez – who had hit the post beforehand – had a chance to add a third after Jota won the Reds a spot-kick. However, the striker sent his penalty against the woodwork.
After the break Dominik Szoboszlai augmented Liverpool’s lead and then Nunez had the chance to add a fourth but nodded Andy Robertson’s cross against the bar. However, the 24-year-old would notch an 11th assist of the campaign when his cross picked out Luis Diaz.
Klopp admitted Nunez was visibly disappointed by not scoring from the penalty spot in the dressing room at half-time. But the Liverpool boss hailed the Uruguay international’s resolve to put it behind him.
“An insane first half, unbelievable, I would say not to defend,” Klopp said. “Outstanding, really good. Why do we speak about Darwin? Obviously, because he has so many situations where he missed but it was the first game since we count that a player hit the woodwork four times in a game. Now think you are in his boots, how that feels.
“Missing a penalty, you could see it at half-time, he was really upset with himself. Then missing the header from close range, but then setting up a goal. He stays in the game. There was never a striker who barely could walk and everybody asks, ‘What is he doing?’ and he became then the final picture of himself, but this is the way how it works.
“It is just crazy that he creates that many. Imagine for a second he would take them all… the numbers would be absolutely insane to the extent where you wouldn’t understand it anymore, so it’s normal. For us it is important because we scored four goals, who cares if we could have scored a fifth or a sixth? It is really not important. We need to win football games – and he will score. He scored already. Then setting up in a really important moment the fourth goal, because 3-2 or 4-1 is a big difference, that makes him really the player he is for us. The rest will come, definitely.”
