Jurgen Klopp called Darwin Núñez “unlucky” after the Liverpool forward struck the woodwork four times and failed to score during Wednesday’s 4-1 Premier League win against Chelsea.
Liverpool maintained their five-point lead over closest challengers Manchester City following goals from Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Díaz. Christopher Nkunku scored in the second-half for Chelsea.
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But although Núñez ended the game by registering an assist for Diaz’s goal, Klopp said that the £85 million club-record signing from Benfica was “upset” after missing so many chances.
“He [Núñez] had an insane first half, impossible to defend, really good,” Klopp said in his postmatch press conference. “It’s the first time since we counted that a player hit woodwork four times in a game and he missed a penalty [among those misses].
“He was really disappointed with himself about missing the penalty, but he is a handful. It was really hard for him. You could see at half-time that he was upset with himself — he missed a header too in the second-half, but then he created a goal.
“It’s crazy that he creates so many. We scored four goals, so who cares about the ones he didn’t score? He will score goals, it will come. He is in outstanding shape, still a bit unlucky, so it’s all fine.”
Liverpool travel to Arsenal on Sunday for a crucial game in the title race and Klopp said that clash is “massive.”
The next game is coming in four days, which I didn’t think was possible,” he said. “But the next one is massive. Arsenal. Let’s recover and go again.”