Darwin Nunez, a striker for Liverpool, has disclosed the guidance Mohamed Salah gave him after his summer transfer from Benfica.
Darwin Nunez has shared the advice Mohamed Salah provided him following his high-profile summer transfer from Benfica to Liverpool.
As Nunez struggled with the language barrier, the £85 million man found it difficult to adjust to life at Liverpool. Salah called the 23-year-old to give him some much-needed advice on how to adjust.
Nunez is back in the team that will attempt to advance to the round of 16 of the Champions League with a point at Ajax tonight. Nunez has shown hints of his abilities and what he can bring to this Liverpool side.
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Before scoring in his Premier League debut at Fulham, the Uruguayan striker, who was criticised on social media for a few mistakes during friendlies, was unfit when he arrived to Liverpool’s preseason camp.
Nunez discussed Salah’s leadership in an interview with ESPN Uruguay: “Both as a player and a person, Salah excels. We were communicating with him when I first arrived in the preseason, using Fabinho as a translator.
“My performance in those initial games wasn’t good since I was unprepared and extremely scared. Then Mohamed called me and we spoke. He advised me to remain composed because I was still getting used to the club and was new.
“He told me that he experienced the same thing, that he didn’t know English when he first arrived in 2017 and promised me that I would learn it, that I should remain calm, that I should continue playing like I did at Benfica, that my potential was important for the team, and that he had his and the captains’ support,” the player said.
When Liverpool eliminated Benfica from the Champions League last year, Nunez came up against Virgil van Dijk, and the striker has acknowledged it makes him “heated” when he has trouble getting past the Dutchman in practise.
Nunez continued, “Van Dijk is a beast; sometimes I get hot trying to pass him in training, and he puts an arm in me and takes me out. “He is a crucial component for Liverpool and serves as a point of reference. He is witty and always talking to people, so it is a wonderful thing to have guys like him in the locker room.
It’s really challenging to defeat him heads-up. I like him as a person and as a player, and I thank him for giving me the advantage in an interview by admitting that it had been challenging to mark me.”