Darwin Nunez has played more Premier League football than all but seven Liverpool players this season and that makes him a bit-part boy who can demand a move…
Darwinian theory
“Absolutely (we saw what we wanted). It’s super important,” said Jurgen Klopp when asked about the performance of Darwin Nunez against Fulham on Wednesday night. “In the beginning, defending the centre against Fulham is really important because Palhinha is there. He’s their connector and gets on the ball. So we were a bit too early out there from Darwin. We tried to fix that but he wanted it. He was a racehorse, he went for everybody.”
So both Klopp and Nunez might have been slightly surprised to find this headline on MailOnline on Thursday morning:
‘Darwin Nunez must be a central figure at Liverpool or be allowed to leave… the £85m striker has one goal in his last 10, is yet to fully win Jurgen Klopp’s trust and the jury is out on whether he is the answer’
Oh. He’s played more Premier League football this season than everybody at Liverpool barring Alisson, Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Andrew Robertson and Jordan Henderson. He’s hardly a peripheral figure. It’s hardly ‘allowed to leave’ territory. Unless you also think Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez should be ‘allowed to leave’ Man City.
And he’s not an £85m striker yet…he cost £64m.
But Joe Bernstein has a bee in his bonnet:
‘On the night Erling Haaland broke more records, Darwin Nunez’s run at Liverpool extended to only one goal in his last 10 matches.
‘Yet the Uruguayan still got a generous ovation for his contribution when substituted late on in a 1-0 win against Fulham. The remainder of this season has to be used by Jurgen Klopp to see if the 23-year-old is up to the task of being the club’s main centre-forward.’
Does it? Or will the remainder of the season be used to cement fifth place and put pressure on Manchester United for a Champions League spot?
‘It has to be remembered Nunez cost £30million more than City paid for Haaland last summer. The early signs were positive, Liverpool’s stand-out signing scored on his debut in the Community Shield against City when Haaland didn’t.’
It should also be remembered – but seems to have been forgotten – that Nunez actually cost an initial £64m. It also has to be remembered that Haaland had a release clause which meant that City bought him for about a third of his value but carry…
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