After a terrible performance during the Premier League match against Aston Villa, Arne Slot has criticised one player for their behaviour. The player in question gave a terrible performance.
At Villa Park on Wednesday night, Liverpool’s title challenge was dealt another blow when they played Aston Villa, coached by Unai Emery, to a 2-2 draw. This result means that the Reds have only one victory in their last four matches from their current roster.
A goal scored by Liverpool star Mohamed Salah put the away team in the lead just before the half-hour mark. However, goals scored by Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins meant that Trent Alexander-Arnold had to step up and score the equaliser in order to bring the match back into a tie.
The striker Darwin Nunez missed a massive opportunity to nick a victory late in the match, and Slot couldn’t believe it. However, the equaliser scored by the Liverpool defender wasn’t the last big moment for the away team. Slot couldn’t believe it.
In the 70th minute of the game, Nunez was presented with what could be considered the best opportunity of the entire match. His teammate Dominik Szoboszlai gave him a shot at an open goal that was only a few meters away, but the Uruguayan player was unable to make the shot, and it crashed over the crossbar.
Nunez was later seen laughing and joking with the custodian for Villa, which led some fans to claim that he is no longer taking the title charge as seriously as he should be. This was in spite of the fact that fans and his teammates were frustrated with him.
In addition, it would appear that Slot is of the same opinion, as he has criticised the 25-year-old player in advance of the crucial match that will take place on Sunday against Manchester City.
Following the conclusion of the match, the Dutch manager made the following statement: “I am able to accept every miss, especially from a player who scored two significant goals against Brentford.”
The behaviour that occurred after that opportunity is the one that I find more difficult to accept. This was not your typical Darwin, who is known for working his tail off. It was unbearable for him to have missed out on that opportunity.
“You can miss a chance, but you cannot miss out on work rate, it’s not part of the job of a No.9 to slow down in work rate, it’s something we will talk about.”
Immediately following the Villa match, Slot defended the Liverpool star, bringing to the attention of the fans the fact that Nunez was the person who was the most dissatisfied with the opportunity that was lost.
“I saw an unbelievably incredible pass from Conor Bradley, a powerful run from Dominik Szoboszlai, who made in my opinion the perfect choice to square because he made it an open-goal chance, and then Darwin, it was not the best, he’s right-footed, of course, but it’s still a big chance,” he said after the game. “I observed all of these things.”
I had high hopes that he would be given another opportunity. We were all dissatisfied, but it is not unusual for a player of this calibre to feel even more dissatisfied than the rest of us. There is one player in the locker room who is experiencing a great deal of depression. You are aware of who it is.
