Liverpool were held to a goalless draw by Manchester United at Anfield tomorrow and in the process Darwin Nunez extended his goal drought to a concerning 10 games.
The Uruguayan’s last goal for the Reds was the winner against Bournemouth in the League Cup at the start of November and he had an afternoon to forget yesterday.
He was caught offside on numerous occasions, was booked for a silly foul on Jonny Evans and never really settled into the game before being replaced by Harvey Elliott after 78 minutes.
Former Liverpool Ladies player Fara Williams has claimed she’s a fan of the 24-year-old but insists he needs to calm down in front of goal and perhaps stop working as hard as he does off the ball.
“If he can get his consistency, he’s a top striker. He can be a top striker. I really like Nunez, I think he’s got a lot to his game – more than what people see. And sometimes, especially with strikers, for him, he works too hard. It sounds really stupid to say a striker works hard, but he works so hard off the ball, in terms of speed and pressing,” she told Rio Ferdinand’s Vibe with Five YouTube channel (via The Boot Room).
“I’m not a Liverpool fan, but as fans, they like to see players working off the ball. And I think he does that a lot. But I’m saying then he’s just erratic, he still has that tempo and that intensity in front of goal. And he doesn’t slow himself down and doesn’t set himself. His feet are never really set in front of goal.
“He gets in good positions, but as I say, I think he’s just playing all the time. His head’s going at such an intensity. He’s never steady, he’s never balanced. But as a player, I really like him.”
Nunez is a player who gives his all when out on the pitch but he simply hasn’t been good enough in recent weeks.
Despite all of the possession we had against United and the amount of shots we had, we never really looked like scoring and our No. 9 was nowhere to be seen despite us needing that cutting edge up top.
The former Benfica man brings an insane amount of pace to our attack and his movement is every defender’s worst nightmare but he’s not clinical enough or anywhere near as composed as he needs to be in front of goal.
His numbers this season, 14 goal contributions in 24 games (across all competitions), aren’t exactly terrible but we need more from the forward if we’re going to compete on all four fronts.
He’ll be eager to end his goal drought this week with West Ham and Arsenal visiting Anfield and he’ll have the whole of L4 behind him if called upon by Jurgen Klopp.
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