Liverpool boss Arne Slot to discuss importance of work rate with Darwin Nunez

Arne Slot will talk to Darwin Nunez about his disappointing drop in work rate after the Liverpool striker “got too much in his head” following his costly miss at Aston Villa.

The Reds failed to open a 10-point lead over Arsenal at the Premier League summit as Wednesday’s trip to Villa Park ended in a helter-skelter 2-2 draw.

Villa had chances to win it late on but Nunez’s botched opportunity shortly after Liverpool levelled was most glaring, with the Uruguay international missing an open goal after being teed up by Dominik Szoboszlai.

Slot’s frustration at the time was as clear as his disappointment the following morning about the striker’s dip in performance.

“I can accept every miss, especially from a player that has scored two very important goals against Brentford, that scores for us in the home game against Villa,” he said ahead of Sunday’s trip to Manchester City.

“I would prefer him to score, but the word ‘chance’ says it all. It’s a chance, so it’s not 100 per cent sure that the ball goes in and players miss chances.

“That I can accept but what was a bit harder for me to accept was his behaviour after that chance. With behaviour, I mean, I think it got too much in his head, where he wasn’t the usual Darwin that works his a** off and makes sure he helps the team.

“I think he was too disappointed after missing that chance and maybe – we will never know, we will never find out – that’s why he was just fraction short the moment afterwards.

“I always truly believe that it’s always the best to have Wata’s [Wataru Endo] mindset and what I mean with that is that for the whole season he doesn’t stop playing, keeps on going, keeps on going, keeps on going and whenever we need him he’s ready.

“That is very difficult. There are not many players that can do this, so, yeah, it’s not about the chance.

“For me, it’s more about the 20 minutes afterwards where I want to talk to him about then about him missing a chance.”

Asked whether it was important to stress to Nunez about his important role for the remainder of the season, Slot said: WYes, I will tell him that as well.

“But I think the most important message is you can miss a chance, but you can’t miss out on work rate. That, for me, a more important message that I tell him because that’s the life of striker.

“He knows. He’s 24, 25, 26 I don’t know. He will probably have missed a few chances in his career, and he probably would have scored a few as well.

“So, no problem at all… not no problem at all, of course we would love to see it differently, but it’s part of the job of a number nine, part of your life that you sometimes miss where people expect you to score.

“But it’s not part of the job of a number nine then to slow down in work rate and that is something we will talk about.”

Liverpool striker Nunez posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, following the miss.

“I wasn’t the best three weeks ago, and I’m not the worst now,” he said. “If I fall, I get up. You’ll never see me give up. I’m going to give it my all until the last day I’m here in Liverpool. Resilience!”

Slot was in front of the cameras just 12 hours after facing the media at Villa Park, where substitute Conor Bradley limped off with an issue late on.

The Liverpool right-back is set to miss the trip to City, but forward Cody Gakpo could return after missing two matches through injury.

“Let’s see,” Slot said of the Dutch forward. “I hope. I’m not 100 per cent sure. He hasn’t trained with the team yet. Maybe he does a bit today, I don’t know exactly. It will be a close call.

“We don’t know yet (with Bradley), but I would be completely surprised if he’s involved in the Sunday game or the Wednesday game against Newcastle, so, you can assume that that’s not going to happen.

“Joe Gomez had a surgery for his hamstring injury, so he’s out for a long time. He will be back maybe just before the end of the season.”