Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen was impressed by the “ragged” performance of Darwin Nunez on Wednesday and told Jurgen Klopp he has a new undroppable ahead of their trip to Manchester City.
The Reds prepared for Sunday’s clash with the champions in the perfect way with a 7-1 mauling of Rangers in the Champions League.
Mohamed Salah scored an incredible six-minute hat-trick having come off the bench at Ibrox, but Owen reserved praise for fellow forward Roberto Firmino, who scored a brace to take his season tally to eight goals and has been the standout player for Liverpool this term.
The BT Sports pundit agreed with our very own Matt Stead in insisting Firmino has to start against Man City.
“Even with that (Sadio Mane leaving) people would’ve put him in fifth in the pecking order,” Owen said on BT Sport. “The biggest game in the Premier League is this weekend [and] I can’t imagine he’s not playing. He’s already had such a good season, recent form, I don’t think Jurgen Klopp can leave him [out].
“He was the star player tonight. OK, [Mohamed] Salah scored a hat-trick but it’s a lot easier to do that as a substitute [against] tired legs. Talk to me about that [the assist]: the ball is slightly behind him but he just improvises and is total quality. It’s hard breaking the deadlock when it’s level or tight and he scored two really important goals that set Liverpool on the way. The rest was the icing on the cake.”
Owen also evaluated £85m Darwin Nunez’s start to his Anfield career, claiming he’s “done nothing wrong” in his short time with the club.
“I think he’s a stop-start start, he got a red card early in his career and you want to make a big impression with your new team,” Owen added.
“Lets bear in mind, at the start of the season we were saying two big signings one at Man City, one at Liverpool, who’s going to score the most goals? At the moment it looks laughable because one is firing and one is finding his feet in the Premier League.
“A lot of people are writing him off or saying ‘ooh, I’m not sure about Liverpool’s new signing’. I don’t think he’s done anything wrong for Liverpool so far, he scored against Arsenal, he played fine [at home] against Rangers – a lot of chances.
“I think Nunez’s goal was important, I thought he was ragged today. I thought for the first hour, I love his movement, he makes galloping runs into the channels but his end product today was a little…
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