Harvey Elliott has been speaking about his Liverpool team-mate Darwin Nunez, whose red-hot form means he has already surpassed his goal tally for last season.
Harvey Elliott believes confidence has been the key to Darwin Nunez’s recent goal surge and says the Liverpool No.9 is looking like an £85m striker now.
Nunez registered twice in the first half of Thursday’s 5-1 Europa League win over Sparta Prague to surpass his tally of last season and move up to 16 for the current campaign – with nine of those goals coming since Boxing Day.
The in-form Uruguay striker is one of the reasons optimism is building at Anfield ahead of today’s massive match at home to Manchester City and Elliott says the whole squad are “over the moon” for their colleague.
Nunez is expected to start alongside Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz against City as the Reds aim to open up a four-point gap on the defending champions and title rivals.
“He is massive for us and not just for the weekend but for any game for Liverpool,” Elliott said. “He is a massive player, hence the price tag and why Liverpool brought him in.
“He is an unbelievable talent and he is only going to get better and better. He is showing glimpses of his goalscoring ability and we are all so happy for him. He just needs to keep going, keep the confidence going.
“You know he has always had the skill and the quality, I think just sometimes it was a confidence thing. Now he is showing it. He scored a vital, massive goal at the weekend (against Nottingham Forest) and now he has come up with another great performance and two goals here (in Prague).
“So as I said we are more than happy and we are over the moon for him. He just needs to keep going, keep working hard and we will support him all of the way. We know what he is capable of doing, he just needs to keep doing it.”
With Diaz also on the scoresheet in Prague and Salah back fit, the Reds entertain City this afternoon with a frontline department that have scored 71 times between them, although 14-goal Diogo Jota is ruled out through injury.
Speaking after the victory over Sparta, Elliott added: “As I said, everyone needs to pop up with goals. It can’t just be the attackers, the midfielders need to chip in too. Dominik Szoboszlai scored again so everyone is needed when it comes to goalscoring.
“We’re getting in the right positions and we’re clinical and today was another showing of that. We have come away with five goals and a good position going into the second leg.”
