Liverpool legend offered new star advice after tricky start to Anfield career

Liverpool host Leeds United on Saturday evening hoping to reduce the gap between them and the top four. 

Jurgen Klopp’s side currently sit eighth in the Premier League table, five points adrift of Newcastle United, who occupy the final Champions League qualification spot.

The Reds will once again be without a number of players for the visit of Leeds, including Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota.

That leaves Klopp with little option in attack, meaning Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Darwin Nunez could all be handed starts once again.

The latter has been in fine form lately, scoring in each of his last three matches for The Reds.

Nunez, 23, has scored in all of his last four starts, including against Ajax in midweek as Liverpool ran out 3-0 winners over their Dutch counterparts.

Now, it has been revealed that Nunez received some words of advice from a Liverpool icon when he first arrived on Merseyside.

According to ESPN, ex-Liverpool forward Luis Suarez reached out to Nunez to offer him guidance following the latter’s red card against Crystal Palace back in August.

Nunez was sent off after head-butting Eagles defender Joachim Andersen during a 1-1 draw between the two sides on the striker’s home debut, and he has now revealed that his international teammate reached out to him soon after.

Suarez was a fan favourite at Anfield

“It was a good thing because not many would bother themselves to pick up the phone and send you a message — I think his gesture was really important for me,” he told the broadcaster.

“Luis is a reference point, an idol everywhere in the world. I’m getting started, I’m young, and he knows about all those things because he already played in the Premier League with Liverpool.

“Luis told me that these things will happen in every game in the Premier League, that they’ll come and find me, that they’re going to bump into me, and that I need to make myself strong and not repeat my screw-up.”

Suarez enjoyed a fine spell with Liverpool between 2011 and 2014, scoring 82 goals in 133 games for the club, but the striker was never far away from controversy.

In 2011, Suarez was banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 for allegedly racially abusing Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra, and two years later he bit Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic on the arm.

Although the incident went unnoticed by officials at the time and Suarez ultimately equalised late on for the Reds, the forward was retrospectively banned for ten matches.

“He said: ‘Listen to an idiot like me.’ I really appreciate that message and the fondness he has for me,” Nunez said of the former Anfield icon.

The pair are international teammates for Uruguay, with Nunez having made his debut against Peru in 2019.

Suarez, meanwhile, has scored a remarkable 66 goals in 133 appearances for his country.

Nunez has scored a respectable six goals in 13 appearances so far for Liverpool, although he did miss three league games due to his suspension.