'Staggeringly fortunate' - Liverpool suffer selection blow as statement released

Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpoo next face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League but Darwin Nunez will not be available for the fixture.

Liverpool will be without Darwin Nunez for their next Premier League fixture.

The Reds forward must serve a one-match suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in the 2-2 draw against Manchester United. Nunez came off the bench in the 59th minute after Cody Gakpo had equalised for Arne Slot’s side at Anfield.

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But the striker was issued a caution in the 77th minute for tussling with United centre-back Matthijs de Ligt. Premier League rules state that any player who his booked five times in their team’s opening 19 games must miss one game. Nunez will be available to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg on Wednesday night and the FA Cup third-round tie against Accrington Stanley on Saturday - but must sit out the trip to Nottingham Forest in the league on Tuesday 14 January.

Liverpool’s media team wrote on the club’s website: “Darwin Nunez will be suspended for Liverpool’s Premier League trip to Nottingham Forest later this month. The No.9 received his fifth yellow card of the top-flight campaign in the Reds’ 19th match, against Manchester United on Sunday, and therefore incurs an automatic one-game ban. Nunez will serve that suspension when Arne Slot’s side travel to the City Ground on January 14.”

Former Everton and Chelsea winger Pat Nevin believes that Nunez was ‘staggeringly fortunate’ not to have been given a red card for his foul on De Ligt. Nevin said on BBC Radio 5 Live: "Definite yellow for Darwin Nunez. To be honest, I think Nunez is staggeringly fortunate there. That's absolutely horrible, straight in on the player, not looking at the ball. Matthijs de Ligt saved him by getting up so quickly.”

Nunez has endured a stuttering season so far. The Uruguay international has managed only four goals in 24 appearances in all competitions. In the Premier League, he has started seven games with Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz being preferred to lead Liverpool’s line.

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The Reds’ draw against Man United moved them six points clear at the summit of the table. However, Slot was disappointed that Liverpool did not deliver a triumph. The Anfield head coach said: “Of course, it feels for us as two points dropped. I think many people, what stays in their head for a long time is what happens in the end and that was a big chance for [Harry] Maguire, of course. But what we tend to forget is two minutes before, Virgil [van Dijk] had maybe such a big chance as he had to make it 3-2 for us. In the end, it was a difficult game. A bit similar to maybe the Nottingham Forest game, where the playing style of both teams was quite similar.

“Defending in a low block with a lot of bodies and if they had the ball, not the risk of build-up but play it long. Every free-kick they got somewhere in and around their own half or our half, they brought it in, so that was a bit similar to Forest. That is not always easy then to play against that style of football and that’s what showed against Forest and it showed again today. Especially if they have such good, quality players that can defend so well, then it is not so easy to play it through that low block that they had.”

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