Was relieved with his goal as the miss prior to that was a pretty bad one. Think he needs to play as much as possible to gain rhythm and understanding with Mo in particular. You can more clearly see the connection this season than last season. Nunez is deceptively fast. With balls over the top he can give the defender a head start and still get onto through balls.
Time to cash in on Nunez. We need a goalscorer; all the effort and the fact that he seems a decent bloke can't mask the fact that he can't find the net.
A goal or assist every 94 minutes this season before tonight's game,and another assist. I don't care who scores the goals as long as the team scores enough,and he's more than pulling his weight in that department. We'll see come the end of the season what Klopp thinks of the whole situation,but not a chance we're cashing in now.
Klopp all but said we wouldn't have gotten the performances from Diaz and Mo without Darwins contribution. You can't have an xg as high we had if your CF is playing badly. The finishing will come.
We have one. He's joint top scorer. We've got Diaz, Gakpo and now a fit Jota too to chip in. Bobby didn't score enough as a 9 because he didn't have to. Darwin is carrying his weight imo and as mentioned our xg is sky high with a huge contribution from him. He'll do for me.
Origi is a weird comparison given Nunez creates more havoc for opposing defences in one game than Origi generally would in five. But its fair enough to want more goals from Nunez,his finishing is nowhere near good enough. Look at it this way though. Last season you were convinced he wasn't going to be good enough at the other things we need our front 3 to do,and now he's right up there with some of the best atackers in the league for creating and bringing others into the game. So he might surprise you again. Of course there's no law that says you have to keep being patient with him with regards to his finishing improving, but on his current goal involvement numbers he's going to play a big part in the second half of the season either way,so you may as well try and get the enjoyment from watching him that a lot of us are.
His Xg alone yesterday was 2 which is wild when you consider most teams don't have an Xg of 2 in a game (I think it's just us and City). Michael Owen who I have no time for in a lot of ways but speaks about goal scoring like a Greek philosopher always talks about it being far more important to be getting into these positions and whatever else you can say about Darwin he always causes trouble and gets chances. I still feel that the issues with his game should have improved a lot more in his time with us but his physical attributes make him worth the gamble, if he tidies up the rough edges he becomes unplayable, if he doesn't he still brings a lot to the team and terrifies the opposition.
https://x.com/LFC/status/1741975088982077919?s=20 Great forward play from him here both with tbe initial lay off and the assist. Was a super goal all round, great play from Diaz too. Ironically Salah's part was the easiest bit
The thing is we know he's capable of being a much better finisher than he has been so far for us. He scored 30+ goals the season before he arrived. Obviously its easier to score goals in Portugal than it is in England, but thats because players get less chances to score in England due to better opposing players. There's little or no difference though to the art of finishing in those two countries,and given Nunez isnt having any issues in getting chances, then theres no reason why his conversion rate can't improve very quickly.
Was thinking last night, if Isak played for us we’d be winning by 5 but at the same time he doesn’t offer anything else apart from finishing so wouldn’t be a Klopp type player. His goals against us have been textbook finishes though. Wouldn’t be Nunez’s biggest fan but his link up play, pressing and movement has come on a lot. His finishing and first touch is woeful when compared to someone like Isak. Suppose in a perfect world you would like a hybrid of both.
Im not having a pop at anybody on here,because it's something I think is common when discussing Nunez or football teams in general. But there's too much focus on aesthetics or who scores the goals, and not enough on the impact a player has on the team overall. Nunez isn't at the moment as good a goalscorer as some other forwards out there,but Mo Salah is,and the logic that swapping Nunez for a better finisher would automatically increase the amount of goals the team scores, is imo simplistic and with most examples,probably wrong. I get people will say "for 80m he needs to be scoring more goals",I don't even disagree with that. But have we forgotten the basic fundamentals of moneyball? The point is to get as many wins as possible out of the money you spend. We spent 120m approx(its actually a bit less) on Nunez and Jota. Reverse their price tags and nobody would be complaining about value for money. If we can sell any player and improve results overall by spending the proceeds elsewhere,then I cant argue against that logic. But until thats the case,why should I care that its the 80m pound central striker providing goals for others,and the 37m and 40m pound wide players scoring the goals? Its like when I say Trent is the best right back in tbe world, and the lads Im talking to arent having a bar of it because hes "not good enough defensively", because instead of judging the impact he has on football matches,which is bigger than any other right back in the world,theyre judging him by what they traditionally expect from a right back. "Defending is the most important part of a full backs game". Not if you're Liverpool's right back its not. The same way scoring prolificly isnt a deal breaker for Nunez being a valuable member of the squad. The most important thing is the impact you have on the team winning football matches,and what anybody expects either based on our preconceptions of what certain positions traditionally provide,or a price tag, comes secondary to that.
I think the chance in the first half was poor last night and he should go around the keeper on his left. He made it look very obvious where it was going. On the other hand he puts one on a plate for salah which is as good as scoring a goal for me. A lot of strikers would have shot and hit the keeper. Salah himself should have squared a ball for Jota at the end of the game but he didn't. Overall I think he has improved a lot this season and I wouldn't be thinking of getting rid.
Nunez is a nightmare to play against. Pace power, pain in arse and never gives defenders rest. He has improved his overall game. The finishing is hit or miss , think if he has less time to think he scores. He will be here next season unless he really shits the nest but even klopp doesn't do that with players. The abuse online is crazy,it's not his fault we paid 80 odd million. While sum them misses last night where poor, the assist was very good.
I absolutely accept all of the points made above. However, if the best thing about him is that he causes chaos, then I would move him on if we can get value for him. We are lucky that Jota is available now that Salah is off with Eygpt because, although Darwin seems to have a great manner about him, I wouldn't want to depend on him for goals. I'd love him to prove me wrong though.
Top of the league with Nunez misfiring, if he hits some goals form though, LFC are winning the league. With Salah away for a few weeks a massive opportunity for him. In front of goal he better when its instinctive. Reminds a lot of Cisse although a harder worker.
I think/hope he is about to catch fire for the second half of the season. Was very unlucky a couple of times last night.
He never gives up, is always trying and continues to get into the right places. It is incredible really that there hasn't been an improvement in finishing. That's why I am not as sure as some here that he will ever be prolific. But if he continues to contribute he doesn't necessarily need to be. We'd be some juggernaut if he does get going though.
Was nothing wrong with his finishing last night. Did excellent for all 3 attempts on target but the keeper just pulled off some unbelievable saves