Darwin Nunez is unrefined and unpredictable but essential for Liverpool
Erling Haaland is everything that most people want from a modern-day centre-forward.
- Published before Liverpool 1-1 Man City
He’s a ruthless, machine-like goalscorer with a variety of finishes due to his clinical, calm and composed nature in the penalty area.
The 23-year-old spearheaded Manchester City’s 2022/23 treble success and he’s once again the leading scorer in the Premier League this season with 18 goals in 22 appearances.
Yet he might not be the difference-maker or the match-winner in the top-of-the-table clash between City and Liverpool.
Those tags could belong to Darwin Nunez on Sunday afternoon, a player you could describe as the antithesis of the robotic Man City No9.
The wasteful forward?
Darwin is not calm and he definitely isn’t composed.
He’s considered by many to be wasteful, erratic and inconsistent. If you had to list things you didn’t want from a centre-forward, they’ve more than likely been used to describe the former Benfica man.
Despite being reliably unreliable in the penalty area throughout his Liverpool career, he’s quite devastating. He’s an oxymoron of a player. Because for all of the missed chances and poor choices in the final third, he’s still one of the most in-form forwards in Europe right now.
The £64m 2022 summer signing has goals in each of his last three Premier League matches. Since the turn of the year, Darwin has 12 goal involvements in 12 appearances in all competitions.
Delve a little deeper and you’ll discover that the Uruguay international has eight goals and four assists in just 749 minutes across this period - a goal involvement every 62 minutes.
This return is even more impressive when you consider the fact he’s hardly been part of a settled team.
There have been countless injuries throughout the squad - Darwin himself missed a couple of games and has had to have his time on the pitch managed - and Liverpool’s talisman, Mohamed Salah, has appeared just once since the 4-2 win over Newcastle on New Year’s Day.
The Reds have been without their main goal threat for the best part of two months. They’ve been without creatives in Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai.
It would’ve been easy for a striker to struggle during this period. After all, the supply line has been cut. Maybe this might’ve been the case with a Haaland.
Everything is geared towards getting the best out of him.
You’ll rarely see him running the channels, dribbling past opponents and having efforts from distance having worked the opportunity himself.
That is the norm for Darwin though. So the fact he’s not had the likes of Alexander-Arnold, Szoboszlai and Salah over recent weeks hasn’t had a detrimental impact on his game.
If anything, he’s used it as an opportunity to do more for this team.
He hasn’t made it his team but he’s shown this attack isn’t solely reliant on Salah to be dangerous. That in itself is an achievement. He’s chipped in with match-winning goals, he’s opened the scoring in some games and he’s chipped in with some important assists.
And he’s done so doing it in his unrefined, unpredictable way.
His 99th-minute winner against Nottingham Forest was his 10th Premier League goal of the campaign. He’s now on 17 goal involvements in the English top-flight, a figure only six players can better, despite appearing in significantly fewer minutes.
The 24-year-old has appeared in 1,498 minutes in the Premier League whereas those with more goal involvements, with the exception of Salah, have a minimum of 1800 minutes to their name.
For added context, Ollie Watkins leads the way for goal involvements with 26 across 2,398 minutes. He’s averaging a goal or an assist every 92 minutes this term. Darwin is averaging a goal involvement every 88 minutes.
The clinical, ever-reliable Haaland has been involved in a goal every 79 minutes and he’s a penalty-taker.
It does highlight the company the Liverpool striker is keeping.
This isn’t the best way to look at this sort of metric but if you were able to extrapolate Darwin’s current average over 2,398 minutes - the same number of minutes Watkins has to his name, he’d have the most goal involvements in the Premier League this season.
Availability the main problem
The issue with the Liverpool No9 isn’t output, if anything it is his availability.
When he’s on the pitch, he’s usually directly impacting things in the final third. Simply put, Liverpool are more dangerous when he’s involved.
In fact, no player has scored as many goals as Darwin (five) has beyond the 75th minute in the Premier League this term. The mentality monsters are back this season and it can’t be a coincidence that Darwin is playing such a key role in all of this.
The forward is instinctive. Everything is emotional.
He doesn’t just want to win, he is desperate to win.
And this desperation manifests itself in a number of different ways. He’ll chase down a hopeful punt and turn it into something. He’ll manipulate his body to somehow get a shot off. He’ll try something that others simply wouldn’t even entertain.
This sort of mentality rubs off on players. Liverpool have always been about marginal gains and possessing a player like Darwin, with his personality, falls into that category.
The enigmatic forward is playing his part in keeping Liverpool involved in this unforeseen title challenge.
He’s everything Haaland is not and that is what makes him so special to Jurgen Klopp’s team.
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