Darwin Nunez is loved by many Liverpool supporters after his positive start to life on Merseyside but one former Red has voiced a rather scathing criticism of the forward, following his World Cup performances.
Speaking about the accused stamp that occured during Uruguay’s game with Ghana, Ronnie Whelan spoke with Football Insider and said: “It’s disgraceful from Nunez, it’s dishonest and completely blatant – he is not even trying to hide what he is doing.
“I would like to see officials make an example of players who are caught red-handed cheating – and give them red cards. Going to 10 men and getting banned might make them think twice.
“You can see they are clearly willing to risk a yellow to give their team some kind of advantage.
“Nunez has a horrible side to him. He’s a brilliant player, although we haven’t seen them best of him at the World Cup, but he has a nasty edge to his game.
“Klopp and the Liverpool coaches are going to have a difficult time controlling him and stopping him getting stupid yellows and reds.
“He is out of order at times, and that petulance is a problem. I fully expect him to get a few red cards and multiple extended bans over the next few seasons.”
The incident in question is somewhat debated as to whether our No.27 was attempting to stamp on the foot of the opposition player, or if he was trying to scuff the penalty spot and affect the chances of Andre Ayew scoring his spot-kick.
Either way though, it’s certainly not the actions of a sportsman and so he can expect to receive some criticism whenever he acts in a way that will attract some critics.
There are many of our supporters who love the chaos that comes alongside the 23-year-old and, although it certainly needs controlling and focussing on the right things, this can give him the edge to be an even better player.
The former Benfica man did appear to only be trying to affect the chances of the opposition taking a penalty but these words from the former Irish international shows that this still can upset a lot of people.
The 61-year-old seems a little over the top in his criticism though and it’s odd to suggest that Jurgen Klopp can’t control the forward either, as questioning the German is something that most Liverpudlians don’t do.
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