Pep Lijnders warns Premier League over Liverpool striker whose 'life has just changed'

Pep Lijnders believes Darwin Nunez has been transformed at Liverpool by his match-winning brace at Newcastle last month.

And the Reds assistant boss talked up the confidence of the No.9 after his fourth goal of the season helped beat West Ham United 3-1 at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.

Nunez was sent on with less than 15 minutes of normal time remaining at Newcastle on August 27 with the Reds one goal down and a man short following Virgil van Dijk's first-half dismissal.

The Uruguay international struck twice inside the final 10 minutes to steal the points for Liverpool against all odds and Nunez is now contributing to a goal or an assist every 52 minutes this term. Lijnders says he is delighted for the £64m striker and believes his new-found confidence, gained from that intervention at St James' Park, has been the difference.

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"Compliments to Darwin, the fans love him," Lijnders said. "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.

"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