Virgil van Dijk believes striker Darwin Nunez is beginning to realise the potential which persuaded Liverpool to spend a attainable club-record switch price on him.
The Uruguay worldwide endured a testing begin to life at Anfield and though he scored 16 targets, the sensation remained he had underperformed.
He has already performed a big half this season, scoring two late targets as an alternative to beat Newcastle, and with Mohamed Salah on the bench he took duty for equalising by way of a penalty of their eventual 3-1 Europa League victory over LASK in Austria.
Nunez has three targets and two assists this season however his all-round affect has been felt extra than simply from that contribution.
The Uruguayan, who had missed a few earlier possibilities however was denied a sure aim by a superb point-blank save by goalkeeper Tobias Lawal within the first half, additionally performed a task within the second aim together with his hold-up play on the midway line.
Liverpool’s captain believes the 24-year-old is creating into the striker they hoped they have been getting once they paid Benfica an preliminary £64 million, which might rise to £85 million, final summer season.
“Everybody has a task to play whether or not you begin or not,” says van Dijk. “Everybody has now seen the potential and the standard he has.
“Towards LASK Darwin was necessary with the aim. Lengthy could it proceed, and with the opposite boys as nicely.
“Up entrance, the competitors is sort of good. All of them need to push one another and it’s good to see.”
A type of “different boys” – fairly actually – was Ben Doak who turned Liverpool’s fourth-youngest European participant together with his first begin on the age of 17 years and 314 days.
The younger Scot was given a run in Salah’s right-wing place and confirmed flashes of his expertise regardless of being starved of alternatives in a poor first-half efficiency by the group.
“It was a giant night time for him,” added Van Dijk. “It was by no means going to be simple, it was a troublesome pitch, however he might have arrange at the least two targets within the first half the place he went previous his man like nobody was there however sadly no one was on the tip of it.
“I’m happy for him and I’m additionally very excited for him and the long run that’s coming.
“You’ve seen within the final couple of weeks, for those who watch intently it’s a implausible group to be a part of.
“We’ve got a whole lot of high quality, a whole lot of youthful gamers, gamers who’re getting new roles and they’re having fun with that as nicely.
“However on the finish of the day soccer is about outcomes. All people desires to play their finest soccer each sport, however generally it’s important to discover a method, like we did at Wolves (getting back from conceding first once more to win 3-1).
“On Thursday it was after we conceded a set-piece, we confirmed that we stayed calm and located a method as nicely.”
