Virgil van Dijk has advised Darwin Nunez to ‘watch and learn’ from Roberto Firmino.
Nunez kicked off his Liverpool career in emphatic fashion by winning a penalty and scoring in Saturday’s Community Shield against Manchester City.
The Uruguay international previously offered a taste of his qualities by netting four goals for Jurgen Klopp’s side in a pre-season friendly at RB Leipzig.
But Van Dijk believes that Nunez can develop his talent further by observing new attacking cohort Firmino to help him master the Reds’ pressing system.
“He has to just keep working and keep learning,” said the defender
“We play in a way that as a striker, you do a lot of defending as well.
“That’s something strikers have to learn. Bobby obviously mastered it and I think he’s one of the best ones in that position to do it.
“For Darwin to learn from Bobby, but also bring his own qualities into the game with runs in behind, mixing it up, it’s good.
“He can mix it up, and he can defend from the front.”
Van Dijk is able to impart personal experience on Nunez after arriving with lofty expectations generated by his own eight-figure price tag.
However the Dutchman insists the 22-year-old’s best way to lift that burden is by ignoring talk around his £85 million fee and delivering on the pitch.
He added: “I’m not going to give him too much advice.
“But obviously he will know that he has to focus on his own game and not what others have to say.
“There is pressure on players who are coming in with a big price tag, but what can you do?
“You come in to perform, and the club pays a transfer fee for you. You just have to work, and in his case try to score as many goals as possible.
“He has to not look at, for example, what all you guys (in the media) say about him after a game. He has to just focus on himself and get settled in as quickly as possible.
“The only way to do that is to learn from training, learn from the games you play, and don’t look at what others have to say about you and your performances.
“That, for me, is the key to success. You can get distracted by all that.”