Darwin Nunez - Thoughts?

[bossy]

1 minute ago, Elite said:

The team is in transition but I simply cannot fathom how people still think Nunez will come good. He's been here a year and half now, he's not improved in the slightest.

Nah, he was improving, but his recent decline has mirrored, completely, that of our performances. I mean Diaz has been here a while now and hasn’t been setting the house ablaze, just for example, but I’m not blaming Diaz, the team isn’t functioning. 

[Elite]

Just now, bossy said:

Nah, he was improving, but his recent decline has mirrored, completely, that of our performances. I mean Diaz has been here a while now and hasn’t been setting the house ablaze, just for example, but I’m not blaming Diaz, the team isn’t functioning. 

How has he been better? His strike rate is probably worse than last season. He's still missing countless easy chances. I just don't see it bar a few good moments he's had. If we want to get back to winning the big trophies, he's not good enough. Diaz has been shit as well but he's shown more than Nunez.

 

I agree about the forwards not functioning, it's because they don't do enough barring Mo and Jota.

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

26 minutes ago, bossy said:

Loved the hatrick today from Mo and the brace from Diaz and Gakpo and, blah blah. Nunez was shite today and hasn’t played well for a while, but neither has the whole team bar Ali and Virgil. There’s been the odd other good appearance from one or two over the last month, but really, everyone has been shit. 

Spot on this. We’ve been terrible the last four league games. Nunez was pretty poor today, and looks off form and low on confidence. Strangely enough, so does the team as a unit, strange considering the good run of results we’ve had.

[Josef Svejk]

1 goal in 14 league games, is it? As a 9 in a attacking, relatively free-scoring side. 

 

Pathetic. 

[ZonkoVille77]

1 minute ago, Josef Svejk said:

1 goal in 14 league games, is it? As a 9 in a attacking, relatively free-scoring side. 

 

Pathetic. 

 

Difficult to argue against this. 

[Elite]

1 minute ago, Josef Svejk said:

1 goal in 14 league games, is it? As a 9 in a attacking, relatively free-scoring side. 

 

Pathetic. 

4 goals.

 

Still a terrible return for the fee we paid.

[TD_LFC]

If the best defence of Nunez is 'why aren't you talking about Diaz and Salah' in a thread dedicated to Nunez then we've officially passed the point of no return.

 

Especially when both Diaz and Salah have been getting their criticism in plenty of other threads.

[Turkish Delight]

2 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

Spot on this. We’ve been terrible the last four league games. Nunez was pretty poor today, and looks off form and low on confidence. Strangely enough, so does the team as a unit, strange considering the good run of results we’ve had.

 

Our forwards have one goal between them in the last 5 league games.

 

As a team we have no style of attacking play other than reliance on individual brilliance to open games up. Right now none of them are providing that.

 

As for Darwin it's painful to watch at the moment. For large parts this season he's looked dangerous but lacking composure in front of goal. He was a liability today. Constantly offside and the two chances he did have didn't even result in a shot which is an ongoing theme.

[johnsusername]

44 minutes ago, bossy said:

Loved the hatrick today from Mo and the brace from Diaz and Gakpo and, blah blah. Nunez was shite today and hasn’t played well for a while, but neither has the whole team bar Ali and Virgil. There’s been the odd other good appearance from one or two over the last month, but really, everyone has been shit. 

 

Salah has enough credit in the bank to go a few games without scoring. Nunez is well into his overdraft.

 

Gakpo and Diaz - meh, I don't think they're good enough for a team that wants to win the league IMO. Good squad players, not good enough first teamers. 

[bossy]

6 minutes ago, Elite said:

How has he been better? His strike rate is probably worse than last season. He's still missing countless easy chances. I just don't see it bar a few good moments he's had. If we want to get back to winning the big trophies, he's not good enough. Diaz has been shit as well but he's shown more than Nunez.

 

I agree about the forwards not functioning, it's because they don't do enough barring Mo and Jota.

We aren’t playing well. We are doing this zombie like play out from the back where Virgil or Konate or whoever take three touches, plays it to the other one then ad nausea rinse and repeat. Not one of our wide players tries to beat a player on the outside, it’s cut in, every single time, we are predictable. You even know what we’ll do at kick off. Play the ball back and launch it to the left. Every time. Teams know what we’ll do. Nunez was properly shite today, but so was everybody else. Diaz, cut inside, Mo, cut inside, Trent, launch aimless ball, Szobo, show pony about a bit. All of these players are good, but we are proper fucking boring doing routines that are mindless and feel like they are done without an end game other than keep possession. I’m not really defending Nunez, just wondering why the rest of this malfunctioning but talented team are all doing weirdly boring shite, but he gets it in the neck. 

[bossy]

4 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

 

Salah has enough credit in the bank to go a few games without scoring. Nunez is well into his overdraft.

 

Gakpo and Diaz - meh, I don't think they're good enough for a team that wants to win the league IMO. Good squad players, not good enough first teamers. 

Of course Mo has it in the bank, I think the team is malfunctioning at the moment but the inherent talent is getting us points. 

[TD_LFC]

4 minutes ago, bossy said:

I’m not really defending Nunez, just wondering why the rest of this malfunctioning but talented team are all doing weirdly boring shite, but he gets it in the neck. 

 

Because he's not just underperforming in a team that is underperforming, he's doing inexplicable batshit stuff along with it.

 

You'd struggle to find a player in the league with a low lights compilation like Nunez and he seems to be adding another couple every game.

 

 

[bossy]

2 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

 

Because he's not just underperforming in a team that is underperforming, he's doing inexplicable batshit stuff along with it.

 

You'd struggle to find a player in the league with a low lights compilation like Nunez and he seems to be adding another couple every game.

 

 

All of them are doing inexplicable batshit stuff. Szobo, Trent and Nunez all gave up today on balls they thought were going out of play or would be dealt with before they could get there. I find so many players assuming such things worrying. The team performance is a problem. Maybe Nunez coming on a sub would be better, I don’t know, but the team is playing boring, predictable football at the moment. 

[lebron]

1 hour ago, Jairzinho said:

I'm no big fan of his, but that's not entirely his doing. Our way of attacking, in the main, is very fucking slow. We don't seem to have any intention of taking advantage of opportunities to break. The slightly aimless slow passing couldn't possibly suit Nunez any less. 

 

We simply have to start Gakpo, or change how we play. As others have said Nunez looks far more useful as a sub where he has more chance to run at tired defences when the game opens up a bit. 

 

He isn't doing us any favours and vice versa.

 

See, I think the slow, aimless passing is due to the lack of players being able to find pockets of space to turn in between the opposition defence and midfield. Nunez just isn’t good enough in that aspect of the game, which we need when facing deep-lying defences. I don’t think he ever will be. For him to be effective, we need to be facing teams that open up a bit more. The game to start him is next week vs Arsenal, I think he will look a lot better then. Today (and last week) cried out for a Firmino type player getting us some possession between their defence and midfield. I think the re-positioning of Salah was done to help with that, but with him having (another) off day, we were still pretty ineffective.

 

Mac Allister has gotten a lot of criticism for his unsuitability to the the no 6 role, but when Matip is not playing, he is the only one consistently finding players with passes between the lines. Hopefully he will be back against Arsenal.

[TD_LFC]

Not knowing whether your striker is going to stay onside, make a run, drop deep or get distracted by a butterfly and start chasing after it means there's no focal point to the attack for the wide players to build off. 

[George Costanza]

He's not very good is he.  At best he's an inconsistent enigma

[Lurtz]

10 hours ago, Elite said:

How has he been better? His strike rate is probably worse than last season. 

 

Last season he hit 0.36 goals per game. This season it's 0.29 and I don't see that improving. 

 

However you spin that its shite for a number 9 in a team with aspirations to win the league, especially given the chances he gets and fucks up. 

 

Anyone who thinks this bloke will suddenly turn it around and turn into Luis Suarez is living in dreamland. 

[Lurtz]

9 hours ago, TD_LFC said:

Not knowing whether your striker is going to stay onside....

That's one thing we did know. He won't. Because he's fucking dense. He should probably have been sent off in the 1st half yesterday. A booking for barging their player over, booted the ball away then applauded the linesman. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Drop Diaz and play him out left, let them both see if they can raise their game competing against each other. There's no way I'd aspire to have Nunez closest to goal he is appalling in front of it. I wouldnt play the two of them in the first 11 until they vastly improve. 

 

[Pidge]

11 hours ago, Josef Svejk said:

1 goal in 14 league games, is it? As a 9 in a attacking, relatively free-scoring side. 

 

Pathetic. 

Where's this free scoring side you mention?

[Fallen Angel]

26 minutes ago, Redder Lurtz said:

 

Last season he hit 0.36 goals per game. This season it's 0.29 and I don't see that improving. 

 

However you spin that its shite for a number 9 in a team with aspirations to win the league, especially given the chances he gets and fucks up. 

 

Anyone who thinks this bloke will suddenly turn it around and turn into Luis Suarez is living in dreamland. 

Didn’t realize his stats were so atrocious - his complete lack of composure and footballing nous is costing us dearly. Jota’s return can’t come quickly enough, as Nunez fails against any half decent defense (and United’s). 

 

He’s an impact sub for me, until he drastically improves his finishing. 

[joe_fishfish]

I think he actually has improved a lot since last season.

 

He's still not good enough.

[John102]

He is certainly better than last season. He still has a goal involvement every 90 mins, an improvement on last season and also has a goal involvement in around 60% of our games this season, up on last year.

 

He is playing poorly at the minute, no doubt, but its not as dire as some would have you believe.

[Section_31]

He had a stinker yesterday but it's distasteful the glee with which people who don't rate him jump on him, I've never seen it to this extent with any other players, even ones who've shafted and humiliated us. He gives his best, clearly loves playing here, and he's also been- for want of a better word - klopped.

 

Klopp has form for buying players not for what they are now, but what he wants them to be. The Nunez we get now probably isn't the one he'd be somewhere else, for better or worse. Clearly worse, at this stage.

[Dave D]

9 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

He had a stinker yesterday but it's distasteful the glee with which people who don't rate him jump on him, I've never seen it to this extent with any other players, even ones who've shafted and humiliated us. He gives his best, clearly loves playing here, and he's also been- for want of a better word - klopped.

 

Klopp has form for buying players not for what they are now, but what he wants them to be. The Nunez we get now probably isn't the one he'd be somewhere else, for better or worse. Clearly worse, at this stage.

 

I dont see people acting gleefully really,- especially as its costing us points.