I don't remember his finishing being this bad at Benfica, with time I think he will improve a bit.
His price tag must be messing up with his head.
His price tag must be messing up with his head.
Darwin Núñez | Liverpool player | Fighter
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The amount of chances Liverpool create, he is definitely going to score goals. This doesn’t mean he is a great striker. His stats will paper over the cracks exactly like Lukaku.
Yeah! I mean the guy has only scored 9 and assisted 3 in 1021 minutes for Liverpool this season (more than a goalcontribution per 90), while missing chances east and west......No one in the league gets to more chances than him. When he finds his finishing boots he'll be a nightmare for the PL defenses.
There is a difference between a 20 year old rookie who is making his first team debut and a 100m striker missing sitters. You can forgive the former for lack of experience or composure. But you can’t give the same excuse for a 100m striker who is supposed to be the finished product.
Must be very difficult living in Sweden, then
Every day is a struggle, believe me...
Darwin OMG!!!
Yeah that's what I mean, Lukaku scored goals but he also left a lot behind him. Nunez still has almost a 1 in 2 record this season depsite being a donkey. He'll score goals because Liverpool create a lot of chances, but I don't think he's got the ability to hit 30+ goals a season.
100m doesn't get you a lot these days.
You do have a point, but this wasn't Palmers debut and Nunez will definitely get better.
Palmer had a good match outside the finishing btw
It’s like he’s aiming for the corner flag. Proper dogshit. When you consider that he’s essentially Mane’s replacement you can see why Liverpool haven’t been near the level they were last season.
Why will Nunez get better?
There's certainly no certainty that this will happen.
You might think he'll get better but there's no definitely about it.
Every club makes signings that don't live up to expectations.
I'm not writing Nunez off but I'm also not guaranteeing success either. It's 50/50, he can go either way atm.
its his technique that is the major issue, so he might struggle to improve
I guess if he didn't absolutely shite himself when through on goal though, it would improve him quite a lot
I guess if he didn't absolutely shite himself when through on goal though, it would improve him quite a lot
He's not good enough you can see it already, doesn't mean he won't score goals or be productive, but theres enough out there for me to believe he will never get close to the £100million striker they thought he could be.
Everyone can improve, but he just doesn't appear to have that killer instinct when it's needed similar to our forwards good players, but not the elite forwards we need to be the best.
Everyone can improve, but he just doesn't appear to have that killer instinct when it's needed similar to our forwards good players, but not the elite forwards we need to be the best.
He's going to score the occasional worldie because he hits them from anywhere with power but as a goal scorer he's very poor.
I think there's a good chance he'll score 30+ in all comps already this season tbf. (Scored 34 last season btw)
He's actually getting the most chances per 90 out of every player in the top 5 leagues this season (both for shots/90: 5,81 and npxG/90: 0,94), so the only thing holding him back right now is his finishing. This season in the PL he's underperformed his xG by 22%, while he outscored his xG last season in Liga Nos by 45%, so his bad finishing started when he arrived at Liverpool. Hopefully it'll last forever, but there is nothing from his past stats indicating that his bad finishing this season will (last forever).
There is not many similarities with Lukaku at all either (Lukaku's had a very good career both for clubs and country to be fair aswell), Nunez just get's into good positions a lot more often:
Lukaku has averaged 0,47 npxG/90 the last 8,5 seasons (top season 0,74) in the PL and Serie A and is a decent finisher (around his xG) compared to Nunez' 0,94 this season.
Nunez is also annoyingly productive for his teammates with 0,41 xA/90 in the PL so far this season compared to Lukaku's 0,16 (avg. last 8,5 seasons) and career best season 0,26.
As much as I hate it, his numbers shows that he's a top striker and (with Jota and Diaz injured) there's no way I'll risk not having him in my FPL team.
If I was to guess I'd say he'd end up being a very qualified success.
He's excellent at getting chances, which is the most important part of being a goalscorer. And for all that his finishing seems erratic, he seems to be performing relatively okay to his underlying stats. I assume because he has randomly scored some difficult chances along with randomly missing easier ones. He's already scoring goals (1 every 2 games so far) and I can't imagine that won't continue. And if he keeps scoring enough goals season on season for enough seasons (he's still only 23) then eventually you'd have to call him a successful purchase.
But his technical limitations aren't going to disappear, which will always make him frustrating to watch for Liverpool fans once they get past the initial stage of defending their new signing to the hilt. And in key games where he doesn't get multiple chances and needs to be clinical, you'd hardly have confidence in him being decisive, or even not actively botching a relatively easy chance. For the price they paid is it really enough to come with all those very evident flaws and trade-offs? Depends on just how many goals he can max out at over a season I guess.
He's excellent at getting chances, which is the most important part of being a goalscorer. And for all that his finishing seems erratic, he seems to be performing relatively okay to his underlying stats. I assume because he has randomly scored some difficult chances along with randomly missing easier ones. He's already scoring goals (1 every 2 games so far) and I can't imagine that won't continue. And if he keeps scoring enough goals season on season for enough seasons (he's still only 23) then eventually you'd have to call him a successful purchase.
But his technical limitations aren't going to disappear, which will always make him frustrating to watch for Liverpool fans once they get past the initial stage of defending their new signing to the hilt. And in key games where he doesn't get multiple chances and needs to be clinical, you'd hardly have confidence in him being decisive, or even not actively botching a relatively easy chance. For the price they paid is it really enough to come with all those very evident flaws and trade-offs? Depends on just how many goals he can max out at over a season I guess.
As soon as Liverpool bite the bullet and get a more effective striker this guy will be toast. At the moment they are still trying to make it work, but there isn’t the right competition there for him.
Verdict: donkey
Verdict: donkey
1. Because his finishing has fallen off a cliff compared to past seasons.
2. Because he get's into good scoring positions more often than anyone else in the top 5 leagues so far this season.
3. Because he'll get the minutes to rebuild his confidence with Jota and Diaz injured.
4. Because he has the intensity, movement and tempo in his game that you only see in top strikers.
Unfortunately he looks like a bomb about to explode.
It'll surprise me a lot if he doesn't score at least 20 more goals this season in all comps without serious injuries.
Wasn't Liverpool doing pretty well with the new front 3 where Darwin plays LW and Firmino at striker?
I think I recall Darwin-Firmino-Salah trio doing good before the World Cup started.
I think I recall Darwin-Firmino-Salah trio doing good before the World Cup started.
Not sure where you're sourcing that stat but Fbref have him as having returned 0.75 goals from 0.70 xG per 90 in the PL this season.
Which is good if you want to argue he (in aggregate) hasn't been as wasteful as people suggest, though that isn't 1-1. But bad if you are anticipating some big upswing in finishing.
He’s at 0,94xG/90 at understat.com
His first season there he also was crap and had schoking games tbh.
Past seasons? He had one outstanding season and that’s it. If i remember he scored over half of his career tally in that one season which was at Benfica anyway. Let’s not pretend he’s not moving up in league quality on top of that.
It’s weirdly wishful thinking I’m reading here. Rebuild confidence, why are you putting it down to confidence? And you’re buffing up random attributes that almost all strikers in the EPL has. What does tempo in his game even mean?
Forlan eventually won two European Golden Boots and a World Cup Golden Ball
Nuñez will get never get anywhere near either of those
Without Forlán's goals we wouldn't have won the Premier League in 2002-03. I'm pretty sure Liverpool won't win the league with Darwin spending any significant time on the pitch.
The only thing that makes me believe Darwin will slowly improve is looking at his 2 seasons in Benfica. He was pretty terrible in the first season, even reacted very badly to the critics who said he was a flop and would never make ot and he improved a lot in the next season, but of course having the same technical issues.
But yeah, like I said before, he will never reach the same level as Cavani, Suarez or Forlan, even if Klopp makes him a 30 or 40 goals striker during a season, at least on the eye test we will never be looked on the same way.
Didn’t watch game, just saw this though
Listen. I laugh at the missed chances too. I love them!
I just think that Nunez is better than what I thought when they bought him, and better than most of you give him credit for. I thought he was massively overpriced too (probably still is) and thought he would struggle hard in the PL, but his underlying numbers this season in actually phenomenally good, and as much as I like laughing at Liverpool players it’s hard to look past that, even with his limited technique and often poor decisionmaking.
With tempo and intensity I mean that defenders struggle keeping up with him and tracking him because he’s allways on the move and sprints a lot.
I’d take him over every other striker im the league except Haaland and Kane
Anybodies numbers would be good at a top club, Ronaldo was 3rd top scorer in the league despite being utter shit and holding the team back.
It’s not the numbers, strikers at top clubs are bought for consistency. Making the difference when it’s needed. We were sitting here 18 months ago saying our attack under Ole needs to improve despite all 4 forwards scoring over 20 goals for us in Bruno, Martial, Rashford and Greenwood ( I think Cavani as well but not sure)
The man misses easy chances so will be a liability for them when chances are at a premium. He adds nothing to open play when there isn’t space to run in behind and nothing is developed through the middle because of him and his average technical ability. His goals are only important because he misses so many and there will be games when he scores 2 against relegation fodder that Morata style buffs his stats but a lot of his goals will come in tense 1 goal wins and draws. Results that shouldn’t be as uncomfortable as they are if they had a striker who sticks away easy chances.
You’re in big, big trouble if your lack of confidence comes from missing piss easy chances, that’s his ability letting him down and not how mental state.
I can’t believe there’s argument that, after watching him hit so many wild shots, he’s about to explode? He isn’t even finishing in a technical way, he’s struggling to hit the ball straight. I pointed this out months ago and you can’t un see it, a lot of his chances missed are from his inability to hit the ball straight. Watch for it next time.
Exactly. I think Forlan had a blip in his career with us.
Comparing the two is like comparing Red Rum to Dobbin from Blackpool beach
we didn't pay £100million for him so that's OK.
Spot on. I get the feeling there are a few nervous United fans (me included) who just assume Nunez will become a top-class finisher because we have all enjoyed seeing him perform poorly and he plays for Liverpool. Would be sod's law that he turns a corner in his performances and we end up with egg on our face.
Hopefully it's just pessimism and, judging by his performances so far, it probably is.
@DanielofLeyland I forgot to add it’s not even confidence. He’s been terrible in almost every game and went into last night with 7 in his last 10. This is Nunez in good form!
Based on what? I mean we literally see him missing such sitters on a weekly basis. Have never seen anything from him to suggest he will get better.
You have plenty of good points here. Benfica is flying without him this season and the jury is still out when it comes to him improving the team or not. All I’m saying is that I think he looks like a premium goalscorer and will score a lot for them, a lot.
I’ll compare his underlying numbers to other prolific strikers at top clubs the next time I’m in front of a computer for you.
Cheers!
A mate of mine who supports Peñarol used to say he had a goalscoring disability all the way back in 2017.
I can't wait to see him dropped from the NT, but hats off to him. For a goal handicapped guy who was literally born and raised as a bindipper, he has gone farther than most (if any) of us would.
I can't wait to see him dropped from the NT, but hats off to him. For a goal handicapped guy who was literally born and raised as a bindipper, he has gone farther than most (if any) of us would.
Yeah so when he finds his finishing boots then he will be lauded, till then he will be mocked for the simple chances he misses.
The player he reminds me of the most is Rashford, both are quick, strong and tall but struggle with their finishing. It will be interesting to see if either of the two can become that bit more clinical. If either of them can, they will be unstoppable!