Arne Slot rushed to the defence of Darwin Nunez, insisting it was too early to judge the Liverpool striker despite his under-par Champions League performance on Wednesday.
Goals either side of half-time from Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah saw the Reds claim a 2-0 victory over Bologna and make it two wins from two in Europe this season.
It was a night to forget, however, for Nunez who flattered to deceive when given a rare opportunity from the start, wasting a good opportunity in the first half having earlier seen a goal ruled out for offside.
The Uruguayan has just one goal so far this season, his only club goal since April, but Slot was keen not to throw his striker under the bus and insisted the entire team must work harder to create better chances for him.
‘I don’t think it’s fair to say he only scored one [goal since April] because you also have to look at the playing time,’ Slot said when asked about Nunez’s worrying goalscoring form.
‘I think this was his third start of the season so I don’t look at it in the way you do and only focus on the individual.
‘I think in the first hour we didn’t create lot of chances for him because we missed out on the last pass on a number of occasions.
‘If we would have done better, that probably would have led to chances for him as well.
Slot continued: ‘It was a great goal against Bournemouth and today he was involved against a team we faced that was really hard and tough on him, and his team-mates didn’t always find him when they could have.
‘It’s a bit early after only three starts to say he only scored one goal.’
Much like Nunez, Slot was clear that his current Liverpool side is still a work in progress despite the Dutchman becoming the first manager in the club’s history to win eight of his first nine matches.
‘We can improve, we have to improve. That is clear. But there are also a lot of positives to take from tonight and from the other games,’ he added.
‘But there was a spell in the game where we didn’t control. They were threatening us more than I would like to see. But again, this is normal.
‘For most parts of the game we controlled, we had more ball possession, but they threatened us.’
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