Darwin Núñez | Liverpool player | Fighter

Nunez - shite version of Lukaku

Haaland - ultimate dreamed version of Lukaku
They dont need to be compared to lukaku! Nunez reminds me more of arnautovic, and haaland doesnt really have someone to compare him to stylistically
 
I have a Liverpool mate who was absolutely raving about Emiliano Insua, if you remember him (you'd be forgiven for not!). The stuff about Scousers being delusional is maybe a bit overdone but I don't know any other fanbase that consistently hypes their own players as much.

Anyway, on Nunez, he still has a bit of time to improve but it has to happen soon realistically. I can't think of many big money signings, especially strikers, who were poor for their first two or three months and managed to turn it around. The best examples I can think of are Drogba and Forlan and neither of them are strong parallels. Forlan wasn't a marquee signing and while he improved a lot, he still never quite looked the part. Drogba's was general play was fine at first, he was just inconsistent and too wasteful in front of goal.

Dani Pacheco was one I heard over and over from one particular scouser :lol:
 
Darwin, Darwin Nunez,
He headbutts CBs and gets many reds,
He's clumsy and not a serious threat,
There's nobody else like Darwin Nunez
 
Dani Pacheco was one I heard over and over from one particular scouser :lol:
I'm sure he was top-scorer at an U18 World Cup at which Gael Kakuta (Chelsea transfer ban guy) won Player of the Tournament.

My cousin was raving about Raheem Sterling before his debut, and honestly I thought "yeah yeah, heard all this before". Even a stopped clock, and all that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 12OunceEpilogue
And Mark González.

The amount of Mark González shirts I saw knocking about that summer/autumn was off the chain. Didn't see many by the following spring though haha

I'm sure he was top-scorer at an U18 World Cup at which Gael Kakuta (Chelsea transfer ban guy) won Player of the Tournament.

My cousin was raving about Raheem Sterling before his debut, and honestly I thought "yeah yeah, heard all this before". Even a stopped clock, and all that.

Are your cousin's initials JS? The same bloke I know raved about Sterling too (justifiably for once!)
 
The amount of Mark González shirts I saw knocking about that summer/autumn was off the chain. Didn't see many by the following spring though haha



Are your cousin's initials JS? The same bloke I know raved about Sterling too (justifiably for once!)
Nope, unfortunately not. My cousin is quite a sensible fan tbf, rarely hypes up youth players so perhaps I should have listened. He also hates Darwin, to stay on topic :lol:
 
Jack Hobbs was one my mate wouldn’t stop going on about, and said he was the next Rio Ferdinand :lol:

All these names coming up has me reminiscing about my peak teenage years! :(

To be fair I was convinced Fraizer Campbell would replace Saha at the time too. :lol:
 
They dont need to be compared to lukaku! Nunez reminds me more of arnautovic, and haaland doesnt really have someone to compare him to stylistically

Arnautovic actually has ball skills. He’s a lite version of Ibra. Nunez doesn’t remind me of either
 
I sure hope the media are as quick to jump on the cost of his transfer if his shite form continues just like they did with Pogba, Maguire etc. Oh wait… that’s just reserved for Utd players isn’t it.
 
The market is fecked to keep a limit at 50m.
 
In English?

The article's title is: Jurgen Klopp's biggest mistake.

The opening paragraph says breaking Liverpool's rules to sign him is Klopp's biggest miscalculation and a 'stain in the splendid history of strategic decisions since 2015'. That should give you a sense of Torres' piece.
 
The whole El Pais article via Google Translate. They're quoting Liverpool officials blaming it all on Klopp.


***

The signing of Darwin Núñez is Jürgen Klopp's biggest miscalculation. The most striking stain in the splendid history of strategic decisions of the Liverpool coach since he was hired in October 2015. The officials of the English club admit it after evaluating it with the technicians: paying 100 million euros for the striker, the most expensive footballer of history at Anfield, it was nonsense considering the cognitive abilities he demonstrates in training and in games. Darwin's substitution on the first day of the Champions League, in Naples, where on occasions Liverpool suffered the most overwhelming defeat of the last five years (4-1) is the most ominous manifestation of the greatest crisis that the German coach has faced since he arrived to England.

"We had obvious problems," Klopp said in the Diego Maradona stadium conference room. Skinny under the black cap, his cheeks drawn, his eyes alert at the bottom of his bony eye sockets, the technician couldn't hide that he was going through a time of stress. Despite the evidence of the collapse, he only made use of Núñez after the hour of the match, with the 4-1 petrified on the scoreboard.

Conditioned by a fundamental Liverpool rule that recommended not spending more than 50 million euros for a player unless it was absolutely extraordinary, until this summer Klopp's transfer list was an example of success for sports directors throughout Europe. The incorporations of Firmino, Salah, Mané, Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz for 40 million euros each exhibited the precise regularity of the model. There were only two exceptions: the acquisition of Van Dijk for 80 million and the signing of Alisson for 60. The center-back became an absolute world reference. The goalkeeper was a wall. They represented effective economic management in the hiring of footballers capable of performing at the highest level for the lowest possible price. Together they reached three Champions League finals and won one. If a prodigy doesn't fix it, the streak is broken.

There are signings in which Klopp is limited to giving the go-ahead. Regarding Núñez, the coach went a step further. Not only did he break the basic rule of not paying more than 50 million. He endorsed the double payment while outright ruling out more affordable or proven alternatives, such as Richarlison, Heung-min Son, or Lewandowski, offered by his agent Pini Zahavi. Following his directive, in June Liverpool bought the Uruguayan's rights from Benfica with the dual mission of filling the void left by Sadio Mané and playing at the top that had regularly corresponded to Firmino. gigantic company. In particular, the succession of Mané, organizational and emotional pillar of the team for six years. The coach warned that Núñez had the resources to achieve it: he pointed out his energetic 23 years, his brave character, his considerable height of 1.87 and, fundamentally, his shocking dynamism.

The disappointment came in the preseason. Ten days of training were enough for the technical secretariat to sound the alarm: “We have to get Firmino back”.

They say in Liverpool that when Klopp subjected the newcomer to the battery of exercises that measure mental speed to respond to situations of maximum difficulty in confined spaces, it was revealed that the striker made too many wrong decisions and that under pressure his controls were a lottery.
Since then, Klopp has worked hard to train him with patience and, meanwhile, use him as an opportunist to fight centers or use him as a revulsive in broken matches, where he can find spaces to easily put himself in unbalanced situations. On the first day of the Premier, against Fulham, he left him on the bench. In the second he was exposed for giving a header to an opponent. Three dates of suspension fell on him and he hardly transcends the substitution.

Liverpool's American owners were stunned when Klopp outright ruled out the player he himself was hell-bent on signing for a record fee. Many club employees, football experts, had warned Klopp that he was risking a lot. But the German, genuinely enthusiastic about the scorer after seeing him in a Champions League tie, preferred to be guided by the illusion of the purchase. “At Benfica, Darwin was a striker, period”, explains the analyst of a Premier League team; “In the Portuguese league there are shortcomings, and there are some spaces that never appear in a competitive league. Jardel scored dozens of goals for Porto. But Jardel was not signed by the big clubs because in Portugal the defenses grant spaces that in England or Spain are much narrower”.

“Benfica lives the Champions League as a medium-small team, in scenarios that the big teams in Europe only find in 10% of the matches”, explains the same analyst. “Hapoel plays Benfica face-to-face in Lisbon. And so all rivals. With counterattack spaces, Darwin played with courage, with tenacity, with claw, with impulses, and he stood out thanks to the counterattack situations that gave him spaces. He scored goals with the cane. It became fashionable."

“We were never compact,” Klopp said, “for 60 minutes we lost a lot of balls and we weren't able to press after loss. We never stretched the pressure to its last line because our midfield didn't connect. Since I lead the team I have never seen it so compact”.

The entrance of Núñez in the Diego Maradona added agitation in the cocktail shaker. But Liverpool did not discover a single light in the darkness that surrounded him. Drowned by Napoli's excellent defense, in 15 minutes Núñez lost seven balls.

The soccer market has swollen like the fruit market in the last decade. In 2011, Liverpool broke their record when they signed Andy Carroll for €40m. It was a historic failure. For several seasons, the club paid the salary of the slender English nine while loaning him out to hospitable clubs. The latest joke in Kirkby, the red sports city, circulates like wildfire: “Darwin Núñez is getting the face of Andy Carroll”.
 
Klopp's biggest miscalculation decided in 5 or so games? Hats off to Captain Foresight! :eek:

Has he got the lottery numbers for next week too?
 
Are we going to pretend Van Dijk, Allison and Keita weren't signed for over £50m?
 
I have my doubts about whether Nunez will succeed here but that article doesn't seem particularly credible to me. How would a Spanish newspaper have this very specific insight into Nunez's performance in training? They seem to be quoting unnamed 'officials' but why would they leak to a foreign language newspaper and not to the Athletic or something?

He endorsed the double payment while outright ruling out more affordable or proven alternatives, such as Richarlison, Heung-min Son, or Lewandowski, offered by his agent Pini Zahavi.

This in particular reads like total nonense; Richarlison? Son? Seriously? In what universe would Everton or Spurs sell these players to us? Lewandowski? Maybe I missed something but reporting all summer has been that he only wanted Barcelona. If they're going to pull names out of a hat at least make it convincing.

the technical secretariat

I know it's google translate but there's something about this phrasing that's funny to me - like we've got a Soviet Union official in charge of our analytics or something :lol:
 
The whole El Pais article via Google Translate. They're quoting Liverpool officials blaming it all on Klopp.


***

The signing of Darwin Núñez is Jürgen Klopp's biggest miscalculation. The most striking stain in the splendid history of strategic decisions of the Liverpool coach since he was hired in October 2015. The officials of the English club admit it after evaluating it with the technicians: paying 100 million euros for the striker, the most expensive footballer of history at Anfield, it was nonsense considering the cognitive abilities he demonstrates in training and in games. Darwin's substitution on the first day of the Champions League, in Naples, where on occasions Liverpool suffered the most overwhelming defeat of the last five years (4-1) is the most ominous manifestation of the greatest crisis that the German coach has faced since he arrived to England.

"We had obvious problems," Klopp said in the Diego Maradona stadium conference room. Skinny under the black cap, his cheeks drawn, his eyes alert at the bottom of his bony eye sockets, the technician couldn't hide that he was going through a time of stress. Despite the evidence of the collapse, he only made use of Núñez after the hour of the match, with the 4-1 petrified on the scoreboard.

Conditioned by a fundamental Liverpool rule that recommended not spending more than 50 million euros for a player unless it was absolutely extraordinary, until this summer Klopp's transfer list was an example of success for sports directors throughout Europe. The incorporations of Firmino, Salah, Mané, Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz for 40 million euros each exhibited the precise regularity of the model. There were only two exceptions: the acquisition of Van Dijk for 80 million and the signing of Alisson for 60. The center-back became an absolute world reference. The goalkeeper was a wall. They represented effective economic management in the hiring of footballers capable of performing at the highest level for the lowest possible price. Together they reached three Champions League finals and won one. If a prodigy doesn't fix it, the streak is broken.

There are signings in which Klopp is limited to giving the go-ahead. Regarding Núñez, the coach went a step further. Not only did he break the basic rule of not paying more than 50 million. He endorsed the double payment while outright ruling out more affordable or proven alternatives, such as Richarlison, Heung-min Son, or Lewandowski, offered by his agent Pini Zahavi. Following his directive, in June Liverpool bought the Uruguayan's rights from Benfica with the dual mission of filling the void left by Sadio Mané and playing at the top that had regularly corresponded to Firmino. gigantic company. In particular, the succession of Mané, organizational and emotional pillar of the team for six years. The coach warned that Núñez had the resources to achieve it: he pointed out his energetic 23 years, his brave character, his considerable height of 1.87 and, fundamentally, his shocking dynamism.

The disappointment came in the preseason. Ten days of training were enough for the technical secretariat to sound the alarm: “We have to get Firmino back”.

They say in Liverpool that when Klopp subjected the newcomer to the battery of exercises that measure mental speed to respond to situations of maximum difficulty in confined spaces, it was revealed that the striker made too many wrong decisions and that under pressure his controls were a lottery.
Since then, Klopp has worked hard to train him with patience and, meanwhile, use him as an opportunist to fight centers or use him as a revulsive in broken matches, where he can find spaces to easily put himself in unbalanced situations. On the first day of the Premier, against Fulham, he left him on the bench. In the second he was exposed for giving a header to an opponent. Three dates of suspension fell on him and he hardly transcends the substitution.

Liverpool's American owners were stunned when Klopp outright ruled out the player he himself was hell-bent on signing for a record fee. Many club employees, football experts, had warned Klopp that he was risking a lot. But the German, genuinely enthusiastic about the scorer after seeing him in a Champions League tie, preferred to be guided by the illusion of the purchase. “At Benfica, Darwin was a striker, period”, explains the analyst of a Premier League team; “In the Portuguese league there are shortcomings, and there are some spaces that never appear in a competitive league. Jardel scored dozens of goals for Porto. But Jardel was not signed by the big clubs because in Portugal the defenses grant spaces that in England or Spain are much narrower”.

“Benfica lives the Champions League as a medium-small team, in scenarios that the big teams in Europe only find in 10% of the matches”, explains the same analyst. “Hapoel plays Benfica face-to-face in Lisbon. And so all rivals. With counterattack spaces, Darwin played with courage, with tenacity, with claw, with impulses, and he stood out thanks to the counterattack situations that gave him spaces. He scored goals with the cane. It became fashionable."

“We were never compact,” Klopp said, “for 60 minutes we lost a lot of balls and we weren't able to press after loss. We never stretched the pressure to its last line because our midfield didn't connect. Since I lead the team I have never seen it so compact”.

The entrance of Núñez in the Diego Maradona added agitation in the cocktail shaker. But Liverpool did not discover a single light in the darkness that surrounded him. Drowned by Napoli's excellent defense, in 15 minutes Núñez lost seven balls.

The soccer market has swollen like the fruit market in the last decade. In 2011, Liverpool broke their record when they signed Andy Carroll for €40m. It was a historic failure. For several seasons, the club paid the salary of the slender English nine while loaning him out to hospitable clubs. The latest joke in Kirkby, the red sports city, circulates like wildfire: “Darwin Núñez is getting the face of Andy Carroll”.

So the alternatives were, Richarlison who was never ever ever going to go there, Son who Spurs were never going to sell and Lewandowski who only wanted Barcelona. Sounds Legit.
 
I have watched him play quite a few games in CONCACAF against players that would never make a PL squad. I was genuinely surprised how hard Liverpool went after him. He is very active in all the national games I watched so it was easy to think he will learn Klopp’s style of pressing and be able to do it well. His first touch was always concerning in his national team appearances, but he was always good in a break away charge once he had the ball under control.
That price tag might force him to be played too much before Klopp could refine him a bit more. He also needs to get his emotions under control in games. PL center backs are absolute shithousers when they sense blood in the water.
 
@TwoSheds remember you vehemently arguing his case against @Seven Seas Sardines in the Nunez thread... still convinced he's got what it takes or looking like we dodged a thanos energy blast?
Whether @TwoSheds agrees or not, I think signing Nuñez ruined them as a football club and no one was happier than me when they announced it.

Wasting so much of their budget on Love Island Lukaku to replace Mane will hopefully be the hammer blow to their aging, entitled squad having inhaled daily for seven years.
 
He drifts out to the LW quite a lot; did he do that in Portugal or is this something new Klopp has instructed him to do?
From Youtube compilations I noticed him being on the LW a lot at Benfica.

This has always been a part of his game and it's why the obvious parallel is Lukaku. Both like to drift into the halfspace so as to cut in onto their preferred foot and are mostly only useful in transition - since neither is technical enough in tight spaces when used down the centre.

If Darwin was playing for Wolves he'd be absolutely awesome - but he's a terrible fit for a top side.
 
paying 100 million euros for the striker, the most expensive footballer of history at Anfield, it was nonsense considering the cognitive abilities he demonstrates
his eyes alert at the bottom of his bony eye sockets, the technician couldn't hide that he was going through a time of stress.
The disappointment came in the preseason. Ten days of training were enough for the technical secretariat to sound the alarm: “We have to get Firmino back”.
The latest joke in Kirkby, the red sports city, circulates like wildfire: “Darwin Núñez is getting the face of Andy Carroll”.
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
I have a Liverpool mate who was absolutely raving about Emiliano Insua, if you remember him (you'd be forgiven for not!). The stuff about Scousers being delusional is maybe a bit overdone but I don't know any other fanbase that consistently hypes their own players as much.

Anyway, on Nunez, he still has a bit of time to improve but it has to happen soon realistically. I can't think of many big money signings, especially strikers, who were poor for their first two or three months and managed to turn it around. The best examples I can think of are Drogba and Forlan and neither of them are strong parallels. Forlan wasn't a marquee signing and while he improved a lot, he still never quite looked the part. Drogba's was general play was fine at first, he was just inconsistent and too wasteful in front of goal.

I had a Liverpool fc fan friend of mine who spent hours debating with me that they had a better XI then we did. It was during the treble season