Virgil van Dijk believes Darwin Nunez is now beginning to realise his potential at Liverpool
Van Dijk pointed to the competition for places in Jurgen Klopp's goal-laden attack as a contributory factor.
Nunez has enjoyed an impressive start to his second season at Anfield having suffered an at times difficult debut campaign
The Uruguay international had a hand in all three goals in Thursday's 3-1 Europa League win over LASK
Nunez stepped off the bench to score twice in the win at Newcastle United last month
With Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota also vying for a role, Van Dijk is convinced the Liverpool forwards - who have scored 11 of the Reds' 15 goals this season - are driving each other to improve.
Van Dijk
“Everyone has a role to play whether you start or not," said the Liverpool skipper. "Everyone has now seen the potential and the quality Darwin has.
"Up front, the competition is quite good. They all have to push each other and it’s good to see. Against LASK, Darwin was important with the goal. Long may it continue, and with the other boys as well."
When the equalising penalty was awarded against LASK, Van Dijk made a point of holding on to the ball and standing by the spot before Nunez stepped up
Van Dijk
"It’s pretty obvious really,"
"You have to make sure you protect at least the penalty spot. It’s a bit of a mind game there in the end, maybe they were going to try and get in your head. It was always the plan that Darwin was going to take it, and I’m glad he scored."
Van Dijk on Liverpool's regained resilience,:
"That’s something to be proud of. It should be like that. We have the quality to make a difference. Whether you start or are on the bench, you always have to have that belief and it looks like we definitely do.
“You’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, if you watch closely it’s a fantastic group to be part of. We have a lot of quality, a lot of younger players, players who are getting new roles and they are enjoying that as well.
"Everybody wants to play their best football each and every game, but sometimes you have to find a way, like we did at Wolves. On Thursday it was after we conceded a set-piece, we showed that we stayed calm and found a way as well. It’s good to keep working on things that we should improve. It was a good step.
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