Darwin Nunez has admitted that abuse on social media has affected his confidence following a difficult season with Liverpool.
Nunez returned 18 goals and 13 assists in 54 appearances across all competitions, but his campaign petered out with no goals in his final eight games in the Premier League. He lost his place in Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI to Cody Gakpo and Klopp’s departure led to suggestions that incoming boss Arne Slot could let him go, with Barcelona said to be interested.
The Uruguay international has been weighed down by his £85million price tag, with high-profile missed chances noticeably affecting him. The criticism came to a head after Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Tottenham on May 5 when he deleted all of the Liverpool-related photos from his Instagram account.
Nunez has now changed his Instagram display picture to a photo of himself, his partner and child wearing Liverpool shirts following the 2-0 win over Wolves on Sunday. And he has tried to explain the impact that abuse and trolling has had on him over the past few months.
“From the moment you start playing and until you retire, there will always be someone who will criticise you,” he told Por la Jersey via ESPN Uruguay. “Before, I did look at them a lot and it affected me. Whoever says that those negative comments do not affect them is lying, those negative comments that are directed towards you will always affect you.
“They tell me everything, but I ignore those comments because they are of no use to me. I never look at the negative comments on social media, at least now I’m not looking at anything, not even the good stuff. If a game goes badly for me, I rely on my family. When things go badly for me, I get hot, but I try to laugh with my family and not show my son the anger I have, what happened in the game is already there, it’s already happened, and there is always revenge.”
Nunez’s future at Liverpool has been questioned by Jamie Carragher, who said: “After two years there’s going to be no improvement in him. This is what he is. He can cause trouble but he’s erratic with his finishing – it’s not enough to win you trophies so there’s a big decision to be made on him.”
However, Slot plans to stick by Nunez, who still has four years left on his Liverpool contract. He has 33 goals and 17 assists in 96 appearances altogether for the club and has the raw ingredients to come good.
That is the right call, according to Klopp, who launched a defence of Nunez recently. “That’s really tough for a young man, it’s really tough. He knows about the expectations here, he has big expectations on himself,” Klopp said.
“That’s tough and you have to go through this. There is no alternative to going through this and he’s going through it. That’s what he’s doing right now. We tried to help him, but in the end, you have to go through it. Everybody has to go through this and this part of a footballer’s career.”
