That Darwin Nunez made essentially the most appearances of any Liverpool participant final season is a quirk of statistics. The £65 million signing performed 54 video games however solely 33 have been from the beginning.
On Saturday, at Anfield he lastly acquired his first begin of the season beneath new head coach Arne Slot. That Nunez additionally scored 18 objectives final season can be considerably of a deceptive statistic – solely 11 of them have been within the Premier League, and none in opposition to a workforce that completed within the prime six. He solely scored in 9 of his 38 league appearances and ended the marketing campaign with fewer league objectives than Chris Wooden, Nicolas Jackson, Matheus Cunha, Leandro Trossard and 14 others.
Diogo Jota, who solely began 19 league video games in Jurgen Klopp’s last season, ended 2023/24 with one league purpose fewer than Nunez, and it was the Portuguese who acquired the nod as Slot’s most well-liked No.9 to start this season.
Jota is rarely an attention grabbing centre-forward, he usually seems to be on the periphery of issues, maybe doing extra of his work off the ball or delicate issues that almost all supporters don’t recognise, actually not making highlights. He’s the antithesis of Nunez – who may be very a lot a spotlight reel participant, typically for good and dangerous.
Jota started the season in excellent vogue with a purpose within the opening win at Ipswich, however regardless of beginning all 5 video games beneath Slot earlier than Saturday that remained his solely purpose to date. Slot then considerably surprisingly opted to offer Nunez the nod as Bournemouth arrived at Anfield.
Jota has develop into a key participant since Jurgen Klopp left Merseyside (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
The previous Benfica ahead repaid that in effective model, with a purpose which needs to be a contender for purpose of the season not only for the standard of the end – on Nunez’s weaker left foot, from the far aspect of the field, curled completely in off the far submit – but additionally for the build-up.
Ibrahima Konate’s lengthy from defence was expertly headed by Nunez for Mo Salah, who launched the Uruguayan down the road. It by no means appeared like a goalscoring alternative from there, however with little stress being utilized by the Bournemouth defender, Nunez was in a position to amble to the sting of the field, assess his choices and supply a shocking end.
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It was a shot with an xG of 0.06 – no surprise Slot, like many inside Anfield, didn’t suppose it was the best choice at first…
“My first intuition when he shot was ‘why does he shoot?’,” Slot informed reporters post-match. “I wished to say ‘why don’t you retain on dribbling?’ as a result of he made the ball free and I feel the defender was on the bottom.
“However then it was a fraction of a second later after I noticed the ball went in off the submit. I used to be like ‘OK, possibly you’re a higher soccer participant than I used to be previously’. Good selection from him!”
It actually was a good selection – and the aid was there for all to see as an emotional Nunez celebrated his first purpose for the membership for the reason that begin of April.
Arne Slot emphasises work charge at Liverpool: similar to Klopp warned
Liverpool supervisor Arne Slot has another choice in Nunez (Picture credit score: Julian Finney/Getty Photos)
Slot, although, can be assessing Nunez’s efficiency past the purpose, with the Dutchman’s phrases forward of Bournemouth sounding not too dissimilar to messages that Jurgen Klopp had provided in direction of Nunez within the final two seasons.
“For me, it’s primarily concerning the work we do with out the ball,” Slot had stated in his pre-match press convention on the Friday when requested what it’ll take for Nunez to get a begin. “[He] understands day-to-day higher what we anticipate from him.”
Equally, explaining the beginning in his pre-match interview, Slot stated: “With out the ball, I’m anticipating him to place in the identical work charge like all of the others have performed till now.”
Past his three photographs, Nunez contributed off the ball too, making seven defensive actions (per FotMob) – considerably greater than his strike companions in Salah and Luis Diaz (two every), and successful two tackles (Salah and Diaz none). That can be what Slot and his workers can be most happy about.
With 4 video games in 10 days, beginning with Wednesday’s go to of West Ham within the Carabao Cup, Nunez will get additional alternative to construct on his begin vs. Bournemouth. And together with his worldwide suspension persevering with through the October worldwide break, meaning extra time working individually with Slot’s teaching workforce, and a extra rested participant after the break.
It seems like that is Nunez’s large alternative, maybe his last one at Liverpool. The following few months can be intriguing to see whether or not he can take it and usurp Jota as Slot’s first-choice centre-forward.
