Darwin Nunez has admitted that he received ‘negative comments’ following his social media purge of Liverpool-related photos.
The striker appeared to have turned a corner after a disappointing debut season.
However, Nunez’s best form in a Liverpool shirt was followed by arguably his worst, which resulted in his removal from the starting lineup at the end of the season.
His rage boiled over when, following the Reds’ 4-2 victory over Tottenham on May 5, he deleted all of his Liverpool-related photos from his Instagram account.
This prompted speculation about an exit this summer.
However, the 24-year-old has revealed that the barrage of criticism has taken its toll, but he has resolved to ignore any comment about him, good or bad.
Darwin Niunez had a wildly inconsistent season for Liverpool, eventually losing his place in the starting XI
Incoming manager Arne Slot is excited to work with Nunez and sees him as crucial to his success at Anfield.
‘From the moment you begin playing until you retire, there will always be someone who will criticize you,’ he told Por la jersey, via ESPN Uruguay. I used to spend a lot of time looking at them, which affected me.
‘Whoever claims that negative comments do not affect them is lying; negative comments directed at you will always affect you.
If a game goes poorly for me, I turn to my family.
‘When things go wrong for me, I get angry, but I try to laugh with my family and not show my son my anger; what happened in the game is already there, it has already happened, and there will always be vengeance.’
Nunez has since changed his Instagram profile picture to one of himself, his partner, and his child all wearing Liverpool jerseys following Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Wolves.
Reds fans’ concerns about losing the perplexing forward were allayed by reports that incoming manager Arne Slot is a fan.
Slot regards Nunez as critical to what he hopes to achieve at Anfield, mentioning him to sporting director Richard Hughes as one of the key players he is excited to work with.
It dispels the myth that Nunez will fall behind Cody Gakpo in the attacking pecking order simply because the new manager is also Dutch.
After all, if Slot sticks with the same 4-2-3-1 formation he used at Feyenoord, he’ll need a bustling, bulldozer centre forward, and Nunez should fit the bill.
The Uruguayan scored 18 goals across all competitions, including a 99th-minute winner against Nottingham Forest in March.
In March, the former Benfica player had the pleasure of silencing one of those sets of home fans when he scored a 99th-minute winner against Nottingham Forest.
He didn’t realise they were hurling abuse at him.
‘During that game, the Nottingham fans sang to me.’ He added. ‘But I didn’t understand anything, thankfully. I ended up scoring on the hour, and [Jurgen Klopp] in the locker room said, “Screw them.”