Arne Slot described one of his Liverpool star's recent displays as "not up to standard" in a surprise press conference admission.
Liverpool are flying high at the top of both the Premier League and Champions League tables, claiming a sixth victory in a row in the latter competition on Thursday after a 1-0 win over Girona.
Mo Salah scored the winner from the spot after a foul on Luis Diaz but Slot was not happy with the display from his side, stating that he was "not pleased about the performance" in a post-match interview.
Advert
Fans fumed about striker Darwin Nunez after he drew a blank and spurned a number of chances against Girona. The Uruguayan is now in his third season with the Reds after an £85 million switch from Benfica but there are still major doubts about whether he can be the prolific goalscorer Liverpool need.
Nunez has three goals in 19 appearances and Slot was asked about him in his press conference ahead of the visit of Fulham on Saturday.
He started off by explaining that he does not assess Nunez on the amount of goals he has scored, instead looking at his all-round game.
"I'm not only judging Mo (Salah) or Darwin on goals, I also judge on their work rate and what they bring to the team," Slot explained.
"That has been positive until now, except for us and him wanting to score more goals.
"For me he has an impact. If you only look at goals, he hasn't scored as many as he wants to score or we want a number nine to score.
"That's clear, but I also made it clear to him, he's not only judged on the goals he scores but on the team performance. He adds something to the team performance with his work rate, and how much he does for us winning the ball back high up the pitch."
But Slot then went on to stress that he didn't like what Nunez produced in the last half an hour against Girona, specifically dropping in work rate after the disappointment of missing chances.
Slot added: "Ideally he would have scored a few more goals but maybe in a few weeks you'll ask me why Mo isn't scoring anymore and Darwin is scoring every week.
"It's the life of a number nine. Sometimes you score, sometimes you don't, but what should always be there is work rate and he has had that, apart from two games.
"First one against Las Palmas (in pre-season) and then the last half hour against Girona, wasn't up to standards he should have and that was due to the disappointment he had after missing chances."
Following on from the criticism of his latest performance, Nunez took to social media to post a series of messages to supporters, including a cryptic post which garnered plenty of attention.
"They are not all, they are some. Thank you Reds for your support, we are all still together!"
After posting a photo of himself with the word "resilience" accompanied, he then took to X to write: "Together we stand, ready for what's next!"
Nunez's place in the Liverpool side appears to under threat now with the returns of both Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa, who have been on the sidelines through injury.
They host Fulham in a 3pm fixture at Anfield.
Josh Lawless