Jurgen Klopp has come to the defense of Darwin Nunez amid the forward’s roller-coaster debut season with Liverpool.

Nunez, who joined Liverpool from Benfica during last year's summer transfer window, has had a fair share of up-and-down performances in his ongoing first season in the Premier League. He sits at nine goals scored in 29 such fixtures played, although he has whiffed on 20 big chances.

Overall, the Uruguayan forward has chipped in with a mere one goal contribution in his last 11 appearances in all competitions.

Klopp is far from concerned with Nunez’s sluggish first season at Liverpool. As he touched on during a pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League away fixture against Leicester City, the German manager sees that the best is still yet to come for the versatile forward.

“A lot more, that's clear,” Klopp said. “He needs time to settle. The most difficult thing for a striker is coming into a team that's not clicking.

“That's the most difficult thing, but then scoring 15 goals — imagine we would have had a normal season for us by our standards. A good season, a 70, 80, or more points season, he would have scored 20-odd goals, definitely. It's like each situation we created, if you miss it, it's much more a highlight.”

In the big picture, Klopp believes that Nunez simply “needs time to adapt.”

“Fifteen goals is absolutely fine, [and there are] still three games to go, so it's possible he can increase that number as well, but we spoke about it — he needs time to adapt,” Klopp said.

Liverpool will look to make it seven league wins in a row in its upcoming away matchup against Leicester City.