Neil Warnock believes Liverpool would’ve progressed through to the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup had they had Erling Haaland upfront instead of Darwin Nunez last night.
The Reds were defeated 3-2 by Pep Guardiola’s side at the Etihad but had Jurgen Klopp’s new striker managed to convert one of his three huge chances, it may very well have been a different story.
“If Liverpool had Haaland they would’ve won easily, the chances Nunez missed I can’t believe the chances he missed,” the 74-year-old told talkSPORT (via Liverpool Echo).
“But I thought what a good sign for Liverpool, the best I’d seen for a while and I just thought with the players missing they might try get something at the back in January if they can. I just thought it was promising for Liverpool.”
The Uruguayan has certainly had his critics since arriving from SL Benfica for an initial £64m in the summer.
Despite him being shown a red card on his Anfield debut and his performances being somewhat inconsistent, however, he’s registered nine goals and three assists in 19 appearances (across all competitions).
Jamie Carragher defined our No. 27 as a ‘rough diamond’ following last night’s game while Klopp’s reaction to one of Nunez’s missed chances was eye-catching.
In our final game before the World Cup, the 23-year-old netted a brace but he was far from his best against the Sky Blues.
Our German tactician is keen to reinforce his midfield options in the upcoming windows but it’s interesting to hear that Warnock reckons we need some new faces in defence.
Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibou Konate were all absent against the Cityzens, however, so we’re not too alarmed by our lacklustre defensive showing.
Let’s hope we get back to winning ways when we travel to Villa Park on Boxing Day.
I agree with everything in this Nunez had a absolute shocker