Darwin Nunez sends defiant message to critics as Liverpool struggles continue

Darwin Nunez has hit back at the criticism he has faced after struggling in Liverpool's opening two pre-season matches.

The Uruguayan played the final 30 minutes of the Reds' 4-0 defeat against Manchester United on Tuesday before he was subbed on at half-time against Crystal Palace as Jurgen Klopp effectively fielded two sides. However, Nunez was withdrawn after barely half an hour following an uninspiring display.

In the clash with United, Nunez missed a sitter after Mohamed Salah's effort hit the post, with the forward blazing over the rebound from eight yards. He went close to scoring late on with a rasping half-volley that was well kept out by Tom Heaton, but his unofficial debut ended in disappointment.

There was growing optimism that Nunez would improve against a weakened Palace side, but it was not meant to be as the 23-year-old failed to impress once again. He missed another glaring opportunity following Trent Alexander-Arnold's cutback, but in the defence of the striker, the cross took a slight deflection on the way through which meant he had to readjust his feet.

Nunez's passing was also off, and in a compilation on Twitter, it featured a poor attempt to head the ball down to a teammate - only finding a Palace player - as well as a lazy foul and a terrible pass which went straight out of play. He is well aware of the criticism flying his way despite making the £85m move from Benfica just last month.

He uploaded a series of images from the match against Palace to his Instagram, adding a finger-to-lips emoji as well as another of a man pointing at his ear. Nunez also posted the same pictures to Twitter with the caption 'resilience'.

Asked about the criticism his forward has been receiving, Klopp said: "I'm not worried at all. The general judgement [on Nunez] is absolutely nil interest [to us]. It will be like this, and we all know it.

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"It's kind of a game or a joke for some people to pick out some situations where a player's not doing well. That's only a game from [fans of] other clubs, which is normal. Our fans probably do [the same] with signings of Manchester United. We cannot take this seriously."

The German was also questioned about Nunez and Fabio Carvalho's performance against Palace. He said: "They were good, really good.

"But I don't think it makes too much sense to talk after a football game about individual players, to be honest, because I'm not sure exactly but I think 32 players round about we used tonight and I liked all of them, what they did, to be honest."