Make or break season for Nunez?
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Prepare to be surprised!!!!
Interesting Nunez minutes do goal ratio is pretty much twice as good as anyone else at the club this season.
What would be a stellar season goal wise?
25?
What would be a stellar season goal wise?
25?
I look at G+As, 30 in all comps, I would say would be brilliant.
I think he's got more and more on the wavelength of the other players. He still has lapses and can be rash, but generally his workrate and team work defensively and offensively has got way better. His stats are brilliant, it's all a bit Andy Cole, he'll get quite a lot of chances and miss a few, but his stats will be great. Salah and Mane were guilty in the early days of missing guilt edged chances (Mane more so), it'll come, he's been great this season.
Funnily enough, what gave me most hope for him over the last few games wasn't his goal, but 2 moments:
1) His hold up play vs Dawson against Wolves and then a good pass to Mo.
2) His around the corner ball, outside of the foot ball to Diaz, then his lung bursting run to then receive the return which earned us the pen against West Ham.
Last season, he would have lost the ball, or passed it out of play in both moments.
What he's sorely lacking though is a trick or two. He has the agility and speed to do the Torres trick (vs Ben Haim) where he stops and starts. Or if he adds the Kanu skill (vs Chelsea 3rd goal), where you open your body up and then cut the ball to your left foot.
I've seen him in the inside left position a couple of times, and the opponent cuts off the curler into the far corner. He opts for the simple pass because he seemingly doesn't have any skill to fake a shot, or fake cutting inside. Suarez, his mentor, was master of this. Mo has also developed these skills over the years and we've seen some great goals because of it.
I kept thinking of the Torres goal lately when I looked at Nunez, funnily enough, because I definitely think he's got that in him, at the minute though he can be a bit of a kick and run merchant (that's probably doing him an injustice because he has much more to his game), which is actually a great asset to have because he can do pretty much anyone in the league one on one on the break. But he needs to not just be an option against tired legs and on the counter, he needs to keep going and gradually build up the trust to be played in the big games and not be considered a bit of a risk. I'd loathe us to feel we had to play it safe against the big sides, because he might not make the right decision.
The most unfortunate thing about Nunez is that he came in at the same time as Haaland, and the dullards basically treated them like an either/or. He was considered a failure from the off because of the magnitude of success that Haaland had. He should just be judged on his own merit.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Gakpo is the safe option, because he can be trusted in big games to take care of the ball, or at least just not cock it up badly.
Darwin needs to smell the game more as a CF/TM. Know when to break fast, know when we are under pressure and he needs to hold it up. Heck know when to press and know when to drop off. It's all too erratic and instinctive right now, which makes him more of an option off the bench than a starter in big games.
As for your analysis. Let's be honest, he's more Cisse than Henry. I think a kick and run merchant is very fair to be honest. But he can improve! Because imo, Salah used to be a bit of of a kick and run merchant too, but as he's slowed down, he's become more skillful and a much more accomplished dribbler.
Torres, wasn't the world's greatest dribbler with us, but he had a couple of tricks up his sleeve to get shots off on goal. Nunez needs to be able to do the same, because right now, he's not really a threat at all in 1 v 1 situations with a defender. But if he learns how fake a shot and cut on to his other foot, like Torres, like Suarez,.
I'm not saying Nunez needs to get to Henry's level of dribbling. Never mind him dribbling past Hamann here, but the fake on Carragher is exactly what Darwin should be able to do against a Dawson.
When watching the game vs Wolves, there was this moment:
WWhere I thought looked similar to the Henry vs Carra moment:
Here is where I want to see Darwin take someone on with pace/trickery. Instead of shooting from 30 yards.
Dawson would have shat himself if Darwin had taken him on with pace (inside his own box), like Carra did with Henry there. He was thanking God, Darwin gave him the easy way out.
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I’m not sure I agree that Nunez was considered a failure last season due to Haaland’s success.
Nunez was judged on his own merit - he only scored 9 league goals - missed loads of chances, was offside a lot, didn’t function well upfront and managed to get himself sent off when he shouldn’t have - that’s what he was judged on.
He’s done just about everything he needed to, to show he can turn that round.
I think opposition fans lapped it up and the comparisons from the media was non-stop from the off. Agree about what he was judged on from our point of view, but I don't think the scale of criticism would have been the same without Haaland.
Yeh I agree with that. He was an easy target. People then were always comparing us to city. We both bought a shiny new striker and one absolutely hit the ground running and the other has taken more time. But we as Liverpool fans should have given him more time.
Part of this was the media and fans of other clubs referring to his '£80-85m' price tag (whereas it was £60m rising to ...) vs. Haaland's €60 million (£52m / $62.6m). We all know that there were many additions to that figure and that in reality it was more like £150m but the headline figure was £52m as if all the other payables didn't exist but Nunez's were always included. Even some on here were using the upper figure !
That’s probably fair - but opposition fans were marking him against their own strikers - the only teams that didn’t have a player that scored more than Nunez were West Ham, Chelsea, Wolves, Bournemouth & Everton.
When watching the game vs Wolves, there was this moment:
Here is where I want to see Darwin take someone on with pace/trickery. Instead of shooting from 30 yards.
But look at little cute Mo there!
You surely have to play the ball to him!
That is all true. But whether it is fair or not, the bar is always higher for us compared to City. They can spend 250 million on fullbacks and have them on the bench. I maybe wrong but not sure Grealish has delivered at a 100 million level.
Whether it is fair or not, we expect a bit more from a 50 million plus striker last season. We can't afford to not to.
Excellent assessment of Nunez's improvement. Not worth cutting and pasting, go read it all.
https://www.skysports.com/football/...unez-showing-signs-of-exploding-for-liverpool
https://www.skysports.com/football/...unez-showing-signs-of-exploding-for-liverpool
It's hardly weird that people refer to the price we'll end up paying when the vast majority of the add ons are payable based on not-so-many performances. Unless he gets injured he'll have cost us near 80 million by Feb whether we've won anything or not. He's our record signing. Which is fine if he keeps improving at the rate he is.
Starting Gakpo - I've no issue with that and understand why. However bringing on Jota instead of Nunez? Maybe that cost us the match and frankly I find it mystifying because Nunez has ALL of the qualities you'd want when under the cosh (hold the ball up, faster than Jota, a better defender than Jota, far stronger than Jota and much tougher to ease off the ball).
Very true, and I think this cost us in many ways (discounting the red cards). Jotta is not the type of striker who you want in a stressful situation where a lot of running is required. The question is, did Nunez have an injury ?, we now have an issue with one of our main front line men being out in Gakpo.
Which is why it's great we have lots of options and I was never worried about the competition. They were always going to get injured. I'd be more worried with injuries elsewhere. It's a good thing they are all in form.
Slightly better Origi, are you alright Stevie? You been sippin' too much Aussie liquor again? He set up both goals today....if Grav scores the tap in he's basically played a big hand in all 3.
Origi scored some big goals, unforgettable goals but let's be honest he was pretty ordinary most of the time. Nunez scored more in his first season than any one of Origi's 6 seasons or whatever it was. Scored more last season than Origi's last 3 seasons here.
At this point I'm pretty sure you're just looking to pin the blame on him whenever possible when we don't win and it's becoming tiresome tbh, instead of asking why Ali and Mac are fucking up, why Robbo is playing like a sunday league, why Grav isn't scoring a simple tap in, why we constantly defend set pieces like a bunch of spastics you look to Nunez?
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