Arne Slot has to start 'excellent' player against Aston Villa after what he did in training yesterday - opinion

11/09/2024 09:00 AM

Liverpool face their final fixture before the November international break as they take on Aston Villa on Saturday.

The Reds had been looking nervously at their run of fixtures since the previous break in play in October.

However, despite facing challenges against Chelsea, RB Leipzig, Arsenal, Brighton twice and Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool have so far come out unscathed.

Another win against Villa on Saturday would mean Liverpool end this portion of the season top of the Premier League and the Champions League, too.

Unai Emery’s teams never make life easy for anyone, though. The Reds will have to be at their best once again to make sure of the three points.

And after Arne Slot left him out of Tuesday’s starting line-up against Leverkusen, Darwin Nunez has been showing why he has to be the man trusted to get Liverpool the goals they need on Saturday.

Darwin Nunez on fire in training

Despite having no other available central striker for Tuesday’s game, Slot decided Nunez would be better served taking a breather on the bench.

Instead, the Liverpool head coach made the interesting decision to play Luis Diaz through the middle.

The move clearly paid off, with Diaz slamming in a first ever hat-trick of his career.

The Colombian’s terrific evening may mean that Slot is tempted to try the same trick against Villa. However, footage from the Liverpool training ground on Friday suggested that Nunez is raring to go.

READ MORE: Liverpool’s predicted XI vs Aston Villa as Arne Slot brings ‘struggling’ player back to start

Liverpool’s No.9 was seen slamming in the goals while being filmed for LFCTV’s ‘Inside Training‘ series.

Instructed by Reds coach John Heitinga, Nunez blasted some delicious finishes past goalkeeper Jakub Ojrzynski.

“Muy bien, Darwin!” bellows Heitinga after the 25-year-old whipped in two beautiful left-footed efforts and a close-range one with his weaker foot, too. He’s looking sharp.

Darwin Nunez must start vs Aston Villa

It will be fascinating to see what Slot decides to do for the visit of Villa. Diaz’s star turn at centre-forward has made his life a little complicated.

However, that decision was seemingly taken more to give Leverkusen centre-back Jonathan Tah as big a problem as possible.

It was always perhaps made with preserving Nunez’s fitness in mind. The Uruguayan needs to be protected a little with Diogo Jota not expected back until December.

But after playing just 10 minutes against the German champions, there should be no fitness concerns over Darwin going into this one.

Nunez has now gone four goals without a goal and other Liverpool forwards do look a safer bet right now. The former Benfica man looks in the mood here, though, and the Reds should capitalise on that.

If it doesn’t work out then Slot can always change things, but on this evidence the ‘excellent’ Nunez has to start on Saturday.