Arne Slot admits Darwin Nunez doubts after Liverpool star's stunner in Bournemouth win

Arne Slot has admitted that while he initially questioned Darwin Nunez’s decision to shoot from the edge of the box – but ultimately acknowledged it was a “good choice” as the striker netted Liverpool’s third in beautiful style against Bournemouth.

Liverpool stormed to victory at Anfield, shrugging off their prior loss to Nottingham Forest with an assertive win, despite Bournemouth briefly causing panic with a disallowed early goal.

Luis Diaz grabbed the headlines early on, capitalising on Kepa Arrizabalaga’s mishandling of Ibrahima Konate’s lob to score, before doubling the Reds’ lead shortly thereafter, thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s assist.

However, it was Nunez’s stunning curled shot that stole the show. And Slot admitted: “My first instinct when he shot was ‘why does he shoot?’ I would have said ‘why don’t you keep on dribbling’ because he made the ball free and I think the defender was on the ground.

“But then it was a fraction of a second later when I saw the ball went in off the post and then I was like ‘okay, maybe you are a better football player than I was in the past’. So it was a good choice from him.”

Nunez’s first start under Slot was marked by his inaugural goal of the season, and while his striking prowess caught the eye, Slot was equally impressed with his defensive contributions.

“Of course, I play a striker because I like him to score goals,” Slot remarked. “I play a winger because I like them to assist and score goals because if you want to win a game you have to score goals.

“But it also helps if you keep a clean sheet and we just spoke about the lead up to both goals, Ibou was involved in this but, keeping a clean sheet, Darwin is also involved in this.

“First and foremost you have to work really hard for the team and then in the beginning of the season it was Mo who made the difference, then it was Lucho then it was Cody (Gakpo) and Diogo(Jota) has been involved in goals. Today it was Lucho and Darwin so that’s all we want to see.”

When questioned on how Nunez can become a regular standout for the Reds, Slot explained: “I think consistency you get by two things. You get it by work rate and you get it by team performance.

“If the team performance is not consistent it’s so difficult for an individual to be consistent as well so we just have to create our habits day by day on the training ground and in the games to get this consistency.

“That’s what we try to do every day. He showed today a good game and maybe he can show it on Wednesday again but lets wait and see.”