It's been a great start for Arne Slot at Liverpool.
Liverpool's 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on Sep. 14 was the first time the club were asked to face adversity so far this season. Arne Slot's side followed that defeat with two convincing wins against AC Milan in the Champions League and AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League. We are early in the season, but it looks as though this squad is prepared to bend but not break.
One of the biggest takeaways from Liverpool's thumping of Bournemouth on Sep. 21 is that Luis Diaz's performances under Arne Slot look not like a flash in the pan but a reality for the rest of the season. While Kepa did look foolish on both goals from Diaz, the Colombian winger has done so well this season to be in the right places at the right time.
Another story that came out of the win over the Cherries is that Darwin Nunez earned his first start and goal of the season after previously riding the bench to begin the campaign. Despite being a significant goal contributor last season, the jury is still out on the Uruguayan striker, given the number of big missed chances he accumulated.
It has become a running theme for Nunez during his time at Liverpool that he makes the easy things look hard and hard things look easy. In the match against Bournemouth, Nunez had several high danger chances that ultimately did not find the back of the net. His first goal of the season was a brilliant strike from outside the box that Kepa could not stop.
Post-match, Arne Slot gave a great reaction to Nunez's thumping goal against Bournemouth.
"“My first instinct when he shot, I said, 'Why does he shoot? Why don't you keep on dribbling?'Then there was a fraction of a second later when I saw the ball went in off the post and I was like, 'OK, maybe you are a better football player than I was in the past!”Arne Slot on Nunez's goal
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Perhaps this goal will be the confidence booster Nunez needs to kick off this season. It will be important that the Reds find goals elsewhere than from Luis Diaz, who has scored five of Liverpool's 13 goals on the season.