Uruguay manager Marcelo Bielsa has moved to defend Liverpool star Darwin Núñez, although he does admit he has one concern about him.
The Uruguay manager was speaking at a press conference as his side compete at the Copa América in the USA.
Núñez is part of the squad and a key player under Bielsa, who has backed the Liverpool player while turning away from former stars such as Edinson Cavani.
The Liverpool man is yet to convince everyone, though, with conversation around him continuing to be about whether he is the elite level striker that many need him to be.
This has regularly been the topic of discussion at club level and is now following him on the international stage too, despite a record of 12 goals in 24 games for his country since making his debut in 2019.
Those aren’t particularly worrying numbers by any means, and it seems Bielsa is not concerned in the slightest about him.
“Darwin is a player who does not need any type of support,” he said.
“You have to know what it means to play for Liverpool and who he competes with, and what his cycles were like, when he converted, when he stopped converting, why he stopped converting. These are things that he manages in proportion to the place he occupies in the football world.
“The only thing that worries me is that he is able to do what he does in an extraordinary way as many times as possible, which is converting, defining, finishing the actions, choosing where he should direct the shot that provides the right conditions to execute it.
“I insist, it would be a contradiction for me to say that what has value are the goals because I am saying the opposite.
“What is the best way to accompany that where he does not need company because he has shown that he can solve it on his own? Trying to give him a lot of balls to score goals.”
