Ian Wright has said he was ‘devastated’ to see Darwin Nunez missing a gilt-edged chance to score for Liverpool in Sunday’s 3-1 victory over West Ham.
The Uruguayan did find the net with a brilliant finish on the hour mark to restore the Reds’ lead, but shortly before that he missed the target with the goal at his mercy with what looked an easier opportunity.
The Match of the Day pundit was reflecting on that game on the Wrighty’s House Podcast when he spoke of his admiration for the 24-year-old.
Wright said: “I’m a Darwin Nunez fan, I was obviously devastated to see him miss that chance. Then he scores an even more difficult chance but then all of a sudden West Ham give Alexis Mac Allister like five yards in the midfield to chip it over the fence. I’m thinking ‘what are you doing after playing so well’!”
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When Nunez missed that glorious opportunity early in the second half on Sunday with the teams level at 1-1, you can be sure that his detractors were sharpening their knives and troll supporters of rival clubs were preparing their memes for social media attention.
Within minutes, the Uruguayan delivered the perfect riposte, latching onto Mac Allister’s sumptuous through ball to execute a glorious volley which shows just how good a finisher he really is.
Yes, there are times when the 24-year-old spurns chances you’d expect him to score, but the sheer chaos he brings up front – and the way in which he torments opposition defenders – makes him easy to admire for Liverpool fans.
Here’s another couple of stats worth knowing about Nunez – he’s overperforming on his xG by 0.4 so far this season and ranks among the top 2% of strikers in Europe’s five main leagues for non-penalty xG per game with 0.74 every 90 minutes (FBref).
A return of four goals in seven matches so far this term (with only two Premier League starts, as per Transfermarkt) is setting him up very nicely to end the campaign with a very handsome tally, provided he can remain injury-free. Fingers crossed in that regard!
With some players newly coming into a team the main integrative work is required is to adapt to the club’s existing system/s. Their talent will kinda demonstrate within that spectrum. With others, like Nunez, it’s the opposite- you let them freely be what they are if you want the best out of them as individuals and as team players. System adaptation is there but it’s the secondary emphasis. It’s the only way some players thrive. We see this with Nunez being allowed to be the number 9 that he purely is: individually he’s scoring goals; teamwise he’s assisting and (crucially) being a constant threat in the opposition’s defence. The team factor of this last aspect is that he’s being enough of a job and distraction for defenders and goalkeepers that it allows other forwards to score. We see that too with our other forwards all scoring this season. Therein lies the uniqueness of the current forward 3 in our characteristic 4 3 3 uniquely different from that of the Salah/Firminho/Mane trio. The key to building and attaining the required chemistry level between our current forwards is that Nunez’s role has to develop more organically (we’re on our way here), let Diaz and Salah just be Diaz and Salah, and in my opinion Jota and Gakpo have proved that they are the more technically adjustable forwards to our different systems. The good thing is that’s what I’m seeing now, credit to Klopp and his technical team. Let’s complete the package now with our work done on the midfield and defensive departments and we’ll be top level fearsome again. I’m starting to see that in our team too…😊