Few players enjoy the kind of adulation reserved for Darwin Nunez – and the Liverpool striker is starting to repay fans’ support

It doesn’t take much to get the Kop stirring when it comes to Darwin Nunez.

Barely a Liverpool game goes by when the No.9 doesn’t hear his own name being belted out around Anfield, often for pieces of play that would not normally invite so much as a polite round of applause.

Nunez was left aiming a nonchalant thumbs up in the general direction of Reds fans within minutes of his arrival in Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Leicester City in the Carabao Cup after he was heartily saluted for simply charging down goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.

Maximum effort is usually the minimum requirement from supporters but the 24-year-old is becoming something of a terrace doyen. It’s easy to see why. As someone who came in as a £64m striker with the potential to become the most expensive player of all time at Liverpool, there is a basic willingness from supporters to see him succeed. Why wouldn’t there be?

But for all of Nunez’s charisma and ability to draw fans into supporting him with more gusto than most, it is also clear that there is a burning desire from Reds fans for him to be the player they believe he can become. They see the electric pace, the athletic frame and the eye for goal and firmly believe he is a player who can become their next hero with some firm encouragement and patience.

And, in fairness, the omens are positive on that front having seen him register a goal contribution every 53 minutes prior to his arrival as a second-half substitute during Wednesday’s win against the Championship leaders.

For all the plaudits that will quite rightly go Dominik Szoboszlai’s way for a thunderbolt that will be one of the goals of Liverpool’s season, it was Nunez’s initial introduction that turned the decibel levels up considerably on the night. An early chest down and turn had the fans chanting his name before he was later hailed for smashing a shooting chance just wide of Stolarczyk’s left-hand post.

“Compliments to Darwin, the fans love him,” assistant manager Pep Lijnders said on Tuesday. “He has this extreme mentality to run and fight and arrive in positions no-one thinks he can arrive. For us it is really important he stepped up offensively and defensively.

“It’s nice to see him in the good moments, it’s nice to see him positive, starting games in a row back-to-back and you see immediately what this does to a player. He is a pure intuition player. He smells goals and he sees and he does.”

Nunez is growing in confidence by the game right now at Liverpool. His match-winning intervention off the bench for a side with 10 men up at Newcastle last month has led to a player transformed.

Having spent the first three games mostly kicking his heels on the side as a substitute, the former Benfica man channelled his frustrations in the perfect way by smashing his two chances past Nick Pope at St James’ Park to secure a remarkable turnaround on August 27.

It was the catalyst for a more secure and confident Nunez , who, it must be stressed, refused to cower, hide or be disheartened when things were not going exactly to plan at times last term, for him or the team in general.

Linjders added: “Away at Newcastle, it would change any players’ life if you can change a game the way he changed the game. We played there for a long time with 10 men and how he made two goals from nothing. It has given him confidence.

“An intuition player like Darwin, he needs this kind of confidence. He speaks better English already, he invests a lot in himself. And it’s like every person everywhere, you need success, no?

“A player with confidence or without is just a different player. So it is important he is confident and he is training really really hard.”

Only Mohamed Salah is level with Nunez’s return of four goals for the Reds so far this term and the in-house battle for supremacy at the top of the charts will be fascinating to watch this season.

Nunez had barely even taken his tracksuit top off as he sat on the bench shortly before his second-half arrival against Leicester and already fans were singing his name. Very few players – even some of the greatest – have been able to enjoy such a luxury. It speaks to how much belief the Anfield faithful has in the centre-forward.

His job now is to repay that faith. So far this season he is doing just that.