Darwin Núñez | Liverpool player | Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shish

Rooney in Paris

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In all honesty, I haven't been impressed with what I have seen so far.
I haven't particularly been impressed (though getting a well taken goal, that wasn't a deflection or anything, on his debut, was pretty good), but I also haven't seen anything that worries me. Which is what Liverpool fans must be seeing in Darwin if they're being honest.
 

little.triangles

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This is not going to age well I think.

From what I've seen of Nunez at Liverpool, I think there's at least as much hyperbole among his detractors as there is among those who are hyping him. It's too early to be definitive one way or another, but to me he looked pretty impressive against Fulham and I think it's perfectly accurate to say he changed the game when he came on in the CS. All the BS against Martinez has nothing to do with this, and personally I couldn't give rat's ass about what Graeme Souness thinks about anything.
Those hyping him happen to be in the mainstream media while his detractors seem to be those with eyes (two groups that are mutually exclusive as we know) :angel:

Emphatically disagree about his community shield performance. The real difference was Guardiola having to take off KdB. City were all over Liverpool before that and his departure allowed the latter to gain some control and for Nunez to direct his easy-chance header onto the arm of a City defender.

We'll also have to disagree regarding his showing against Fulham. He had decent movement but his ability on the ball - passing, linking up, finishing - is shocking not just for a 100m player but is subpar for a player who hopes to be a no.9 for a top four club.

Regarding Martniez, that was a point made to illustrate how Liverpool players are the darlings of the media and are given every chance to prove themselves, whereas the pressure is heaped on United players even when they play decently. These narratives in the mainstream media makes a difference, especially in the social media age, and they should be called out. Instead, you have United fans often adoptinng those very narratives.
 

justsomebloke

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In all honesty, I haven't been impressed with what I have seen so far.
Antony?

Okay, with some good moments (including a great goal), against Arsenal. Pretty much invisible against RS and ST.

Statistically (just 3 games though...), much the same impression: Mixed, but generally not huge obvious impact.

On a per 90 basis (and considering for comparison only players with at least 90 minutes of playing of times altogether):

- Non-impact in the air - only Fred and Sancho won fewer aerial duels, and no one in the squad won a lower percentage of their aerial duels.
- Best on team for Interceptions (2.5 per 90)
- Not a frequent crosser: 8th on team in that category
- Middle of the road for offsides
- By far the best on the team for fouls drawn (3.33, second best is Casemiro with 2.38)
- Also the only player yet to commit a single foul
- xG +/- not very good (ie, xG with him on the pitch versus xG with him not on the pitch) - just a + 0,02. 10th best in the squad. But straight +/- (same thing, but for goals actually scored or conceded) much better, 4th in squad (behind Malacia, McT and Varane).
- For progressive passes received (which is a good measure of a player's degree of presence as an attacking outlet) decidedly lower tier - just 2.92/90, 7th in the squad. Ronaldo has 7.4.
- Good progressive ball carrier - only Shaw and Sancho has more/90.
- Very active dribbler - the most dribbling attempts/90 and successful dribbles/90 on the team.
- But not that much involved on the ball offensively. A paltry 11th in the squad for touches in the attacking penalty area, behind even McT. More present in touches in the attacking third, where he's 5th (behind Bruno, Shaw, Elanga and Sancho). Across the whole pitch, he's fairly involved for an attacker, with only Bruno and Ronaldo ahead of him among our attackers for Touches overall.
- Medium grade presser: 8th in the squad for pressing actions (fewer than Sancho, slightly more than Rashford or Ronaldo). Much like everyone else playing up front really.
- Quite impactful in Shot-creating actions: 2.92/90, behind Elanga and Bruno.
- Not very much involved in passing, though that partly goes with the position: 29.2 attempted passes/90. Only Rashford and Elanga has fewer.
- Among our forwards, his passing accuracy (75,7%) is better than Rashford and Elanga (who are both in the 73% range), but considerably below Ronaldo and Sancho (who are both above 80%).
 

justsomebloke

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Those hyping him happen to be in the mainstream media while his detractors seem to be those with eyes (two groups that are mutually exclusive as we know) :angel:

Emphatically disagree about his community shield performance. The real difference was Guardiola having to take off KdB. City were all over Liverpool before that and his departure allowed the latter to gain some control and for Nunez to direct his easy-chance header onto the arm of a City defender.

We'll also have to disagree regarding his showing against Fulham. He had decent movement but his ability on the ball - passing, linking up, finishing - is shocking not just for a 100m player but is subpar for a player who hopes to be a no.9 for a top four club.

Regarding Martniez, that was a point made to illustrate how Liverpool players are the darlings of the media and are given every chance to prove themselves, whereas the pressure is heaped on United players even when they play decently. These narratives in the mainstream media makes a difference, especially in the social media age, and they should be called out. Instead, you have United fans often adoptinng those very narratives.

We'll see.
 

Loon

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I just hope all this schadenfreude doesn't come back to bite people in the arse...
 

Pexbo

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I’ve been racking my brains trying to think who he looks like and it finally twigged earlier:

 

Flexdegea

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:lol:

The funniest thing about all this is how rattled Liverpool men and klopp are about him.


I've no doubt he will score goals but can't deny his all round play is pish. Be like lukaku at us, and Chelsea, fans scrambling about hoping it turn round, but the donkey in the room is the team performs a lot better when they aren't on the pitch as so many attacks collapse around their touch
 

Manya.para.siempre

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He’ll probably end up becoming a decent striker as he’ll probably improve (especially under Klopp). But he’s never going to become world class for a top team. There’s just too many things in his game he needs to improve.
 

PoTMS

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I wonder who will come in and save Klopp's blushes. Palace? West Ham? Bournemouth?
 

thegregster

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An absolute dud. They have paid 100m for Origi replacement and he is worse.
 

anurag

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This guy may become a quality striker in the long term but it does not really look like he would become one of the elite players. His temperament is also piss poor, he comes across way too aggressive whenever I have seen him on the pitch. Reminds me of young Rooney but without the skill and pace.
 

vanderpants

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Unfortunately, i reckon he will eventually come good but in the meantime, we can all have a good laugh :D
 

BerryBerryShrew

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This guy may become a quality striker in the long term but it does not really look like he would become one of the elite players. His temperament is also piss poor, he comes across way too aggressive whenever I have seen him on the pitch. Reminds me of young Rooney but without the skill and pace.
He reminds me of a young Rooney if I pretend that a young Rooney was utter shite at every single aspect of football.
 

Dominos

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Pretty disastrous that he can only get a few minutes.

I remember the meltdown on here on how ETH wasn't being backed because Liverpool got him. Bullet dodged so far.
 

SportingCP96

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I literally called it.

The hype train in Portugal works wonders.

It’s crazy to think that a guy who was hardly the best or even second best player in Portugal would be worth 100M and would bang in goals for fun in the EPL.

This move was doomed from the start.