Arne Slot has denied Darwin Nunez is playing for his future this season, insisting he and the Liverpool team need to instead figure out the best ways to utilise the striker's qualities. The forward sat out Tuesday night's 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest through suspension but has just two goals in 15 Premier League appearances this term and only four in 26 across all competitions.

The Uruguay international is expected to return to the squad when the Reds are entertained by Brentford on Saturday afternoon and while Anfield officials have firmly dismissed speculation of a move to Saudi Arabia this week, Slot thinks it is simply a case of playing more to his player's strengths going forward.

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"For me, this is the same thing as if we played at 12.15pm and we lost," Slot said. "People would then probably say: ‘You weren’t awake because you played at 12.15’. When things are not perfect there are always a lot of things that are being brought up that don’t have so much to do with what is going on.

"Darwin is a striker we have to use in a certain way and we were not able yet to bring the best out of him this season. Against Accrington Stanley again you saw that he has a lot of pace but, unfortunately for him, most teams sit back a lot against us.

"If you look back at the goals he scored for us, I remember the one against Villa when he went around the goalkeeper on a fast break, that is his main strength - he has other qualities as well - but we are still working on getting him in the best possible positions against a low block.

"That involves the right timings, the right crosses, the right position to start from and making the right run. But I also see, and I don’t know if other people see this, the way teams defend our No.9 is something you have to give credit to the other teams for. It’s never: ‘Here Darwin, you can score’.

"Every time we put in a cross I see a defender all over him. I see it, referees unfortunately don’t. That’s why for us, in general, it’s more difficult to score against a team like Forest because every time we had a chance they had six, seven, eight, nine or ten players standing in the 18-yard box.

"And the one time Chris Wood had a chance he was there almost on his own. We weren’t really close to the ball. They only had one chance, we had 15. But with the 15 we had there was always someone close to the ball or all over one of our players. Darwin will score his goals. He already did and he will again."

Asked if he was surprised by the negative slant on some of the questions he is currently having to face up to as the head coach of the Premier League leaders, Slot added: "No, this might sound weird, but in general what I've felt until now.

"I was used to more negative questions in Holland than I get over here and if I remember correctly at Feyenoord we were mostly top of the League as well at Feyenoord.

“So, no, I don't experience it as something negative. The difference might be that in Holland they talk more about team performances and here it is more about individuals.

"So here it is always about 'Mo Salah is great' or 'he is not so good at the moment' or 'he is not so good at the moment.' That is, for me, the difference but not in terms of positivity or negativity.”