It seems that, no matter what he does in a Liverpool shirt, some pundits will simply never take to Darwin Nunez.
The £140,000-per-week Uruguayan (Capology) scored a respectable 15 goals in his first season at Anfield (Transfermarkt) and has made a vital contribution for the Reds already this term, turning a probable defeat into victory at Newcastle with two late goals.
The 24-year-old has been culpable of missing chances he’d be expected to score – such as the one in the second half against Aston Villa last Sunday – but his overall performances have seen top-flight defences utterly tormented.
That still hasn’t been enough to convince Jay Bothroyd, who was grading every Premier League number 9 on Sky Sports’ Saturday Social.
When it came to Nunez, the ex-Blackburn forward said: “For me he’s between a C and a D. When he has played he’s played the majority of games on the left. When he has played as a striker I don’t think he’s played well.
“We talked about missing chances. He’s missed loads of chances, and these are good chances. Yes he was fantastic the other day, but we talk about giving him a chance.
“If I’m signing a player for £80m, I’m expecting him to come in and score goals, For me, he hasn’t done it in the Premier League yet. That’s not to say he won’t, but he really has to really work on his composure as a striker.”
Nunez’s scoring return in the English top flight so far amounts to 11 goals in 33 appearances, averaging one every three matches. Bothroyd played 62 times in the Premier League and scored six goals, roughly one every 10 games (Transfermarkt).
Pundits who define the Uruguayan purely by the chances he doesn’t take ignore that his scoring return is nowhere near as bad as some make out, and that his all-round game in the final third makes him a nightmare for defenders to try and contain, as Villa discovered six days ago.
The 24-year-old’s critics remain, so the best way for him to quieten them is by consistently finding the net, which we believe he’s well capable of doing throughout 2023/24 and beyond.
You can check out the panel’s comments on Nunez below (from 13:59), via Sky Sports Premier League on YouTube: