Darwin Nunez - Thoughts?

[aws]

Our attack lacks real pace and  often just huffs and puffs if he’s sat on the bench. 

[Jose Jones]

37 minutes ago, dave u said:

We're a much better team with him on the pitch than we are when he's not on the pitch and it's far more enjoyable to watch. We were fucking dogshit last night until he came on and not for the first time this season either.

 

Of course he needs to start putting more chances away, but with or without goals he's still contributing a lot. People are bitching about missed chances like he's some passenger who is only there to score goals. The overall body of work is very good, it needs more goals for it to be great though.

That’s what is so frustrating though isn’t it? If his finishing was anything close to his all around play he’d be absolutely amazing.

Sadly he is statistically the worst finisher in the entire league this season I think.

Every time you think, “he just needs a goal or two to get off and running”, he scores a couple, and then his finishing gets worse.

[Jairzinho]

I do think in general our current attacking pattern of play/philosophy/whatever of slowly fucking around with the ball before one of the wide men fails to beat the fullback, predictably, isn't helping him.

 

The player he should aim to become for us is Torres. Tall, quite strong, rangy, quick, capable of flashes of genius. I doubt he'll ever get close to Torres, few do, but those quick attacking transitions in 2008/2009, or Kenny's first six months back, or of course the glory days of Mane/Salah/Firmino, just seem few and far between now. 

 

He's never going to be a Suarez/Dalglish type of striker. The more time he has, the worse he is. We really should be doing our utmost to be as direct as possible with him when we can. It doesn't need to be a perfect ball to him, he's rapid and clearly has fight/desire in spades. Give him the chance to be a defender's nightmare.

[johnsusername]

I've warmed to him a lot this season. 

 

I just think he's got much more in his bag than Diaz, Jota and Gakpo. 

 

I know Jota does score but he's a purple patch striker and can go AGES without a goal, and when he's not scoring I don't think he really offers much else.

 

I'm not convinced of Gakpo at all. He's like the invisible man half the time. 

 

Diaz hasn't been the same since his double injury and I'll be honest I think he's finished as a first team player.

 

Who out of all of them would get in to the Salah/Mane/Firmino front three? None. 

 

I think we need to buy a top striker in the summer or even January. (I thought we should have bought one summer gone but that was another shambles of a transfer window).

[Jairzinho]

1 minute ago, johnsusername said:

I think we need to buy a top striker in the summer or even January. (I thought we should have bought one summer gone but that was another shambles of a transfer window).

 

The problem with this is we spent 70m on Nunez, and we're in constant limbo re Salah. A left footed player who could play wide right or as a number nine would be perfect. A younger Berardi.

 

They're all good players, but there are question marks over all of them.

[TD_LFC]

Picking Gakpo but then overloading the wide areas and having most of the ball out there made no sense.

 

If you're going to play a player you've been grooming as a false 9 then you need to be playing the ball into him deep and letting him turn and run then using Diaz and Salah to make the early runs into the box. When he was then moved to the left he was getting the ball and was more involved.

 

Mac Allister suffered for the same reason. 

[Section_31]

15 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

I do think in general our current attacking pattern of play/philosophy/whatever of slowly fucking around with the ball before one of the wide men fails to beat the fullback, predictably, isn't helping him.

 

The player he should aim to become for us is Torres. Tall, quite strong, rangy, quick, capable of flashes of genius. I doubt he'll ever get close to Torres, few do, but those quick attacking transitions in 2008/2009, or Kenny's first six months back, or of course the glory days of Mane/Salah/Firmino, just seem few and far between now. 

 

He's never going to be a Suarez/Dalglish type of striker. The more time he has, the worse he is. We really should be doing our utmost to be as direct as possible with him when we can. It doesn't need to be a perfect ball to him, he's rapid and clearly has fight/desire in spades. Give him the chance to be a defender's nightmare.

 

I think of him as being like Batistuta 15 minutes after a car accident.

[Jairzinho]

Just now, Section_31 said:

 

I think of him as being like Batistuta 15 minutes after a car accident.

 

I reckon Batistuta could have both legs amputated and he'd still be a more lethal finisher though.

 

Cavani is another player he could be like. Took him a few years to build the nous as well before he became a really intelligent and physically imposing forward. 

[3 Stacks]

People have incredible amnesia when it comes to our attackers. Yes of course, Nunez is more dynamic than Gakpo, they arent the same type of player, but it was literally 4 days ago that Nunez started and was bad, and Gakpo came off the bench and was good. This was just the reverse. And then people pretend that if Nunez started every game, he would be this good all the time, when the reality is we have seen him have a bunch of stinkers. 

 

I get why people are the most bullish on Nunez to become the best of our 4 other attackers, but currently none of them are that different in consistency of performance. 

[manwiththestick]

A shot (hopefully one that goes in)at redemption on Saturday away to Palace after his sending off there last season.

[dave u]

1 hour ago, 3 Stacks said:

People have incredible amnesia when it comes to our attackers. Yes of course, Nunez is more dynamic than Gakpo, they arent the same type of player, but it was literally 4 days ago that Nunez started and was bad, and Gakpo came off the bench and was good. This was just the reverse. And then people pretend that if Nunez started every game, he would be this good all the time, when the reality is we have seen him have a bunch of stinkers. 

 

I get why people are the most bullish on Nunez to become the best of our 4 other attackers, but currently none of them are that different in consistency of performance. 

 

Nunez was not bad on Sunday. He was fine, did loads of good things in the game but he didn't score so ergo he must have been shit.

[dave u]

3 hours ago, Jose Jones said:

That’s what is so frustrating though isn’t it? If his finishing was anything close to his all around play he’d be absolutely amazing.

Sadly he is statistically the worst finisher in the entire league this season I think.

Every time you think, “he just needs a goal or two to get off and running”, he scores a couple, and then his finishing gets worse.

 

I said in the match report that if his finishing was what people want it to be then we wouldn't have been able to sign him (or afford him for that matter).

 

It needs to be better though, obviously.

[Barrington Womble]

On 05/12/2023 at 13:19, TD_LFC said:

When did I claim it was tongue in cheek?

 

Any plan we had for him went out the window early in the first season when we realised he couldn't do it (and that it sacrificed Salah's attacking threat as a result).

 

We spent the rest of the year pissing around trying to fit him in before giving up and just not playing him or bringing him off the bench when we had no other option.

 

What we're seeing now is a variation on City's tactic for Haaland last season (that we started using in the run in last year).

 

We had plenty of conversations about the re-emergence of the WM formation and how it would hopefully better suit him at that time.

 

You're original point of view was not the plan went out of window early in the 1st season, it was we don't have a plan. It was people defending Nunez were saying any plan we had went out of the window with how last season went. 

 

I called you out on the "no plan" earlier this season and how fucking stupid it sounded, then you back tracked with the tongue in cheek bullshit. You are just desperate for him to fail so you are proved right. You desperation is highlighted here after every single game. The lad is doing well and you can never bring yourself to admit it, without of course slipping some bullshit it after it. 

[3 Stacks]

31 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

I said in the match report that if his finishing was what people want it to be then we wouldn't have been able to sign him (or afford him for that matter).

 

It needs to be better though, obviously.

Nah, his finishing in his last season at Benfica was brilliant. He outperformed his xG by a good margin; 26 goals in the league on 18 xG and 6 goals in Europe on 3 xG. That is the exact player we paid for. 

[TD_LFC]

Simplest solution is he puts the round thing in the rectangular thing more often (4 goals in 3 out of 15 games in the league isn't it), people who want him to do it more can then give him the praise he'll be due and those who are now pretending that we don't need him to be top quality and he can just get away with being part of the team or that we bought him for his pre-assists can go back to saying he's going to be world class, or their are all these world class things about him, with their previous vigour.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

We signed a player who was scoring for fun but passed like Poulsen on ketamine.

 

His link up play is far better, his work rate is good. But his finishing is still as raw as a ginger's sunburn. 

 

He is, however, not alone in needing to improve. 

 

On a side note, cheering the lad every time he does absolutely anything is getting a bit weird. 

[Section_31]

Lest we forget Nunez was bought during a period where clubs, including Real Madrid, were parking the bus against us. And it was working.

 

I've never viewed him as some sort of star triker, we don't play that way, we haven't had a focal point attacker since Torres I'd suggest. We've had these sort of freewheeling attacking midfielder come strikers. 

 

I can see why he pisses some people off, but I do honestly think he's been hamstrung by being set up by the gary nevilles and Alan brasils of the world as being 'the' golden Boot wannabee rival to Haaland. And he wasn't, and isn't. He's a battering ram when he needs to be, a whippet, foil and generally someone who makes shit happen.

[Rushies tash]

4 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Lest we forget Nunez was bought during a period where clubs, including Real Madrid, were parking the bus against us. And it was working.

 

I've never viewed him as some sort of star triker, we don't play that way, we haven't had a focal point attacker since Torres I'd suggest. We've had these sort of freewheeling attacking midfielder come strikers. 

 

I can see why he pisses some people off, but I do honestly think he's been hamstrung by being set up by the gary nevilles and Alan brasils of the world as being 'the' golden Boot wannabee rival to Haaland. And he wasn't, and isn't. He's a battering ram when he needs to be, a whippet, foil and generally someone who makes shit happen.

 

I'd rep this twice if I could.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

4 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Lest we forget Nunez was bought during a period where clubs, including Real Madrid, were parking the bus against us. And it was working.

 

I've never viewed him as some sort of star triker, we don't play that way, we haven't had a focal point attacker since Torres I'd suggest. We've had these sort of freewheeling attacking midfielder come strikers. 

 

I can see why he pisses some people off, but I do honestly think he's been hamstrung by being set up by the gary nevilles and Alan brasils of the world as being 'the' golden Boot wannabee rival to Haaland. And he wasn't, and isn't. He's a battering ram when he needs to be, a whippet, foil and generally someone who makes shit happen.

 

Fair points. Klopp's first front three was set up to be unpredictable, and you get that from Nunez.

[Barrington Womble]

12 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

Simplest solution is he puts the round thing in the rectangular thing more often (4 goals in 3 out of 15 games in the league isn't it), people who want him to do it more can then give him the praise he'll be due and those who are now pretending that we don't need him to be top quality and he can just get away with being part of the team or that we bought him for his pre-assists can go back to saying he's going to be world class, or their are all these world class things about him, with their previous vigour.

 

In his Liverpool career so far he has a goal contribution every 105 minutes. 

 

This season he has a goal contribution every 79 minutes. These are.goaks and assists and not "pass before the pass". And it doesn't count when we've scored when he hit the woodwork first.

 

By any expectations of a.normal person he's doing well and improving. But it's much easier to cry.in the hope the someone might say you were right. 

[TheHowieLama]

In my spare time I do a spreadsheet that compares league goals/assists of Nunez to Hojlund. Similar price and expectations.

Haven't started on the Hojlund side yet but it's only a week into December.

 

[TD_LFC]

22 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

In his Liverpool career so far he has a goal contribution every 105 minutes. 

 

This season he has a goal contribution every 79 minutes. These are.goaks and assists and not "pass before the pass". And it doesn't count when we've scored when he hit the woodwork first.

 

By any expectations of a.normal person he's doing well and improving. But it's much easier to cry.in the hope the someone might say you were right. 

 

So he's on a downward trajectory, needs to pull his finger out.

 

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Goal contributions are the new goals.

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

5 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

People have incredible amnesia when it comes to our attackers. Yes of course, Nunez is more dynamic than Gakpo, they arent the same type of player, but it was literally 4 days ago that Nunez started and was bad, and Gakpo came off the bench and was good. This was just the reverse. And then people pretend that if Nunez started every game, he would be this good all the time, when the reality is we have seen him have a bunch of stinkers. 

 

I get why people are the most bullish on Nunez to become the best of our 4 other attackers, but currently none of them are that different in consistency of performance. 

The reality is that the part in bold is wide off the mark. 

[3 Stacks]

45 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

The reality is that the part in bold is wide off the mark. 

Yeah, he doesn't have bad games, you're right. He's been good all the time