Jurgen Klopp has admitted he’s struggling to explain the situation surrounding one of his Liverpool players following last night’s defeat of Fulham at Anfield.
Second half strikes from Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo turned the game around following Willian’s opener for the visitors inside 20 minutes.
The Reds will now travel to Craven Cottage for the reverse fixture in a fortnight knowing anything but defeat will book their place at Wembley.
Klopp’s side struggled to break down a resolute Fulham defence until the introduction of Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez 11 minutes into the second half and our German tactician was keen to speak about the latter, who set up both goals, following the game.
“I don’t know how to explain the Darwin [Nunez] situation,” Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com. “I’m so happy about our crowd and how they take it; I am so happy about Darwin’s reaction and how he takes it, but you cannot be more unlucky than he was in this finishing situation. It is just not possible.
“He does absolutely everything right and then the ball is not in. Then he still sets up the other goal. I think that’s really special to do that again. He did it for Mo [Salah] against West Ham, if I am right, and today for Cody. Super-special. The impact they had was obviously really big, but before that we found our feet already.”
Nunez was superb when he came on last night and Marco Silva’s side simply couldn’t contain him.
His pace, strength and movement in behind was exactly what the hosts were crying out for and we’re delighted that he made an impact by registering two assists.
He could’ve had a hat-trick himself had it not been for some stunning saves from Bernd Leno between the sticks and that’s why Klopp is struggling to explain our No. 9’s situation.
The 24-year-old is doing absolutely everything right but he’s just not getting any luck at the moment.
The former Benfica man now has eight goals and 10 assists this term (across all competitions) and that means there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about what he and the team can achieve during the second half of the campaign.