Darwin Nunez was the Liverpool saviour as the Reds scored twice late on to beat Brentford. But Arne Slot's men had not made things easy for themselves with a string of missed chances.

Liverpool had an incredible 18 shots in the first half of its game with Brentford without scoring, with Thomas Frank's side making things difficult on home turf. The Reds had nine corners in the opening 45 minutes, too, but couldn't beat Mark Flekken, and ended the 90 minutes having had 37 efforts on goal.

Former Liverpool man Sepp van den Berg was in good form at center-back, proving a point against his old club, with the Reds needing to be slightly more clinical in the final third. It comes in the wake of Diogo Jota, who was not named in the matchday squad for Slot's side, being injured again. Nunez, for much of this season, has been out of form.

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"Darwin will score his goals," Slot said ahead of today’s trip to Brentford. "He already did and he will again." While the Liverpool boss selected Luis Diaz as his number nine with the Colombian ahead of him in the pecking order, he was eventually proven right.

With Jota injury-prone and Nunez still inconsistent, there is a question mark heading into the summer about Liverpool needing a new number nine. Indeed, at this point, it is more of a necessity.

Had Liverpool been slightly more clinical at Brentford, it could have been out of sight by half-time. Instead, the Reds had to push for the opener in the second half with some frustration kicking in. Nunez scored his fifth and sixth goals of the campaign but now he needs to push on and prove this wasn't a one-off.

Slot turned to Nunez and Andy Robertson as his first changes just after the hour mark by which time Liverpool had racked up 24 shots but only six on target. Almost immediately, Nunez had a big chance but could only head wide. Eventually, though, he was the Liverpool hero, with wild celebrations ensuing.

Liverpool.com says: Come the summer, the number nine role is definitely something to think about, along with left-back and holding midfield. Liverpool has good players in all areas, its forward line included, but it needed to be more clinical here to make its own life much easier when it was actually playing well. Nunez won the game in the end but it shouldn't have taken that long.