Nedum Onuoha has named the one Liverpool player he ‘wouldn’t want to play against’ if he were currently active.
The former Manchester City defender was speaking on the BBC Planet Premier League Podcast when he admitted that he’d dread having to face Darwin Nunez, although he was critical of the Uruguay striker and claimed that some Reds fans are ‘starting to lose patience’ with the number 9.
The 37-year-old said: “You mention Nunez, I wouldn’t want to play against him, but a lot of people don’t expect much from him because he’s not lighting up the stat sheet in terms of goals and whatnot.
“He feels a bit chaotic, but he also has finesse. I just wish he scored more goals because I feel there are a lot of people starting to lose patience with him from a Liverpool perspective.”
When the podcast host claimed that, on a recent visit to Anfield, Nunez was being showered with support from the stands, Onuoha replied: “Yeah, but you were in the posh seats where they tend to be more positive in that area. I think there is some disappointment from some.
“You see him starting in some games and there is a finite number of chances you can miss where people stop clapping and saying ‘Keep going; it will come’. I wouldn’t want to play against him because he’s all-action.”
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Even Nunez’s most ardent backers would admit that the 24-year-old can be guilty of passing up chances that he should be scoring, as illustrated by him underperforming on his xG by 3.6 in the Premier League so far this season (FBref).
However, the vast majority of match-going Liverpool fans still back him to the hilt, and it’s very rarely that the Anfield faithful would audibly turn on one of their own, whereas at other clubs he mightn’t be so readily appreciated.
Despite his spurious claim that many LFC supporters are growing impatient with the Uruguayan, Onuoha has raised a valid point in stating that he’d hate to come up against the Reds’ number 9.
That’s because, even if he’s not always the most clinical of centre-forwards, Nunez is an incessant battler who occupies opposition defences and goes through a lot of unsung work which can often free up his fellow attackers to take the glory.
We’d obviously love to see him improving his goal tally substantially by the end of the season, but so long as he continues to show a determination to get on the ball and into scoring positions, there’ll always be a strong chance of him winning crucial points for Liverpool as they contend for the Premier League title.
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