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Darwin Nunez: Liverpool striker showing signs of big impact
Darwin Nunez had quite the cameo against Manchester City.
- Published prior to Liverpool v West Ham
The 23-year-old replaced Roberto Firmino with just 18 minutes of normal time remaining yet still finished the match with the same number of efforts as Mohamed Salah (3), while no Liverpool player attempted more dribbles than the Uruguay international (2).
The visitors didn’t know how to deal with the former Benfica man as he barreled past Joao Cancelo and into space for his first shot before forcing Manuel Akanji to foul him moments later as he threatened down the Liverpool left once again.
With a bit more composure in the final third and a little bit of luck, he could’ve had a goal and two assists in what was a whirlwind 20-minute spell. Instead of focusing on these positives, however, too much is being made of what he failed to do.
He failed to slide a pass into an unmarked Salah to put the game to bed, instead opting to carry the ball and attempt a shot.
He failed to play a pass to Fabio Carvalho in the penalty area before then attempting to pick out Trent Alexander-Arnold with a much more difficult attempt to execute.
Finally, he failed to connect properly with a dink over Ederson after Diogo Jota played him through.
All of these, of course, made it into fail compilations that you see across social media.
Nunez hitting high numbers
Manager Jurgen Klopp addressed these narratives in his recent press conference ahead of the match against West Ham, saying: "We shouldn't forget how young he is, the young boys take time to adapt. The Premier League is the most competitive league in the world and the fact we didn't start so well doesn't help a striker. He's a machine and monster though."
Nunez terrorised the team with the best defensive record in the Premier League. Yes, he was up against tired legs and City were pushing for an equaliser, but how often have you seen a Pep Guardiola side look so powerless to halt a player?
Despite the talk suggesting otherwise, the No27 hasn’t had a bad start to life on Merseyside, all things considered. He has appeared in 516 minutes across all competitions and has four goals and an assist.
No player in the Premier League is averaging more shots on a per 95 basis (6.9), and impressively no player can better his non-penalty expected goals (xG) per 95 minutes average of 1.07 according to Infogol - not even Erling Haaland (0.90).
Though a small sample size, Nunez is averaging more than double the xG/95 that Harry Kane currently is.
The numbers are encouraging but people aren’t yet convinced. His four goals have been fairly instinctive finishes and his technique when he has time leaves a lot to be desired.
The optics aren’t great.
Similarities with Suarez
But there were similar conversations almost a decade ago when Liverpool signed Luis Suarez. He scored on his debut against Stoke City and finished the campaign with four in 13. In his first full season for the Reds, he scored 11 in 31 Premier League appearances.
He was viewed as a menace in the final third. A scorer of great goals but not a great goalscorer.
Heading into the 2012/13 campaign, a lot of talk centred around whether the former Ajax man was reliable enough in front of goal.
The post-match reports following the 1-1 draw with Hearts in a Europa League qualifier mentioned how the No7 spurned two gilt-edged opportunities before equalising late on. Other articles highlighted the fact he was an expensive player in the sense he missed a lot of chances and didn’t score enough league goals.
There was even an OptaJoe stat from back In February 2012 that labelled him as wasteful due to his 8.3% conversion rate. The Premier League average at the time for forwards was 16%.
8.3% - Luis Suarez’s conversion rate in the Premier League compared to the PL average for a striker of 16%. Wasteful. @Ash_Clarke_
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 14, 2012
Some might say that the former No7 was prematurely written off. He wasn’t. He was just judged on his misses at the time as they outnumbered his goals.
Suarez was an erratic finisher in a dysfunctional team.
It took him 18 months to replicate his Ajax form for Liverpool and even then, he only went nuclear in his third full season on Merseyside. Of course, the circumstances are different. Suarez joined a struggling side and only started scoring on a regular basis once the Reds figured out how to put together a functional attack under Brendan Rodgers.
Nunez joined one of the best teams in the world. One that was scoring for fun last season. But one that was undergoing a refresh. You could just as easily make the argument that he is an erratic finisher in a dysfunctional team. After all, he is being judged on misses right now too.
But he’s not even been with the Reds for six months yet and Klopp has already tinkered with the system on multiple occasions, partly by design and partly out of necessity. It hasn’t been the easiest bedding in period for the striker, yet he’s still posting some of the most intriguing numbers in the league.
Nunez had his best spell for Benfica in his second season with the club. Maybe he just needs to acclimatise to his surroundings properly before judgment can confidently be passed.
There are plenty of parallels between the Uruguayan compatriots. The one big difference is, going off his current numbers, it won’t take Nunez three seasons to start scoring a lot of goals.
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