Rio Ferdinand admits Liverpool star Darwin Nunez makes you “scratch your head” but is sure he will be an “effective striker” for Jurgen Klopp.
Nunez was guilty of a terrible miss against Ajax on Wednesday, hitting the post just before half-time when Roberto Firmino squared the ball to him in the area with the goal at his mercy.
But the 23-year-old made up for his error by scoring a lovely header in the second half to bag the Reds’ second goal in a 3-0 win in the Netherlands.
His start to life at Anfield since his £85m summer move from Benfica has been a mixed bag, and Ferdinand believes that is likely to be the case in the future as he’s not the “cleanest of strikers”.
But the former Manchester United centre-back reckons he would be tough to play against and believes he has the work ethic to be a success for the Reds.
“There were good and bad moments for him,” Ferdinand said.
“He had a bit of an indifferent night. There’s moments with him where you’re just scratching your head but then he scored which is what you’ve bought him for.”
Listing his best qualities, Ferdinand told BT Sport: “The thing with him is he always tries to get in the box and score goals, his head never drops, he’s tenacious, he wants to graft and fight. That’s definitely a plus, you want that in your side.
“He’s never going to be the cleanest of strikers but he will be an effective striker in the long run; an effective striker who scores goals at this football club.
“As a defender he would be hard to play against, he will give a lot of defenders a hard days’ work.”
Klopp earlier had defended Nunez for the miss, saying: “I think even he was surprised [when the ball came to him]!
“He had a really good game in both directions, helped defending and played with a big heart today so hopefully we took him off early enough.”
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