Darwin Núñez

[Craig_H]

This sort of sums up how I feel.

[ame="https://twitter.com/theanfieldwrap/status/1737026481220469167"]https://twitter.com/theanfieldwrap/status/1737026481220469167[/ame]

[Norbs]

Its like people make their own fantasies to just not like him. For the premier league stats hes on 4 goals, 5 assists. The only other person above him? Salah, on 11 goals and 7 assists. Everyone else is below them. Hes our second best player. And hes hit the post about 400 times more than Salah. All this gakpo love? Hes on 2 goals with 1 game less than nunez.

We're doomed

[Buzzo]

One good thing is that the match going crowd are right behind him. At the Toulouse game that I was at when he somehow managed to miss an OG and hit the post, the crowd instantly recognised his effort and got behind him.

The questions are valid, his form is poor. I would imagine he agrees with this himself. He is mm away from the return that removes all questions - but that's not what we need. We dont need almost we need his goals. Big 6 months for him, one where his career with us will likely be defined. We are in a title race, can Nunez find the goals to get us across the line? The jury is out.

[Buzzo]

This sort of sums up how I feel.

https://twitter.com/theanfieldwrap/s...26481220469167

Yeah, this is a solid take

[BigChief]

Haven't seen the vid but I would play him on the left exclusively because we have no threat from there whatsoever. No pace, no goals, no crosses in from the byline. With Nunez bombing to the touchline he will get special attention thus freeing up Salah and Gakpo in the middle for some serious shooting.

[danperkins]

This sort of sums up how I feel.

https://twitter.com/theanfieldwrap/s...26481220469167

[Charly]

Haven't seen the vid but I would play him on the left exclusively because we have no threat from there whatsoever. No pace, no goals, no crosses in from the byline. With Nunez bombing to the touchline he will get special attention thus freeing up Salah and Gakpo in the middle for some serious shooting.

The problem is he cant change direction at speed, so he needs to cut in early to be effective. He is decent in the air, but we dont put in the crosses anymore (our fullbacks used to be good for 30 assists a year). As much as I dont particularly rate him, the forward play is very disjointed no matter who plays.

Salah needs to maybe come central as he just does little on the right outside the box. Id be tempted to play Nunez in that channel, and persist with Diaz on the left. Failing that, Gakpo needs to become the new Bobby... Unless Elliott is given the go ahead... I think he has the eye for a through ball.

[red g]

The volume of missed chances doesn’t help Nunez. Yes he has numbers better than most others. It could be argued that those numbers should be better given the chances that he’s had. He’s also capable, he has produced brilliance but he’s also failed to convert too many sitters as well. We can’t ignore that.

He can’t be a bad finisher, you don’t score 30 odd goals in a season by being a bad finisher. But for us, he hasn’t demonstrated that he’s a good finisher and the leeway we have for that is very finite.

I’d be confident that both Gakpo and Jota would have more goals if they’d had the same chances that he has had.

I’d also say that criticism of Nunez doesn’t mean the others have been brilliant either. Unfortunately though, whataboutery doesn’t make the missed chances he’s had any better.

How many did Emile get in that season with us? must be near 30?

[Irishnev]

The volume of missed chances doesn’t help Nunez. Yes he has numbers better than most others. It could be argued that those numbers should be better given the chances that he’s had. He’s also capable, he has produced brilliance but he’s also failed to convert too many sitters as well. We can’t ignore that.

He can’t be a bad finisher, you don’t score 30 odd goals in a season by being a bad finisher. But for us, he hasn’t demonstrated that he’s a good finisher and the leeway we have for that is very finite.

I’d be confident that both Gakpo and Jota would have more goals if they’d had the same chances that he has had.

I’d also say that criticism of Nunez doesn’t mean the others have been brilliant either. Unfortunately though, whataboutery doesn’t make the missed chances he’s had any better.

I actually watched all his goals from the season before he joined us earlier today , on the wind down in work now

About 6 pens, some scruffy finishes and some ****e goalkeeping in there. He did get a few crackers and a lot of headers from the back post area. Clearly he’s not a completely **** finisher but he got hot that season and rode the wave.

[Buzzo]

Klopps take. Quite a good interview with Ben Foster.

[ame]https://twitter.com/theanfieldtalk/status/1737125662115131439[/ame]

[red g]

I actually watched all his goals from the season before he joined us earlier today , on the wind down in work now

About 6 pens, some scruffy finishes and some ****e goalkeeping in there. He did get a few crackers and a lot of headers from the back post area. Clearly he’s not a completely **** finisher but he got hot that season and rode the wave.

They should have watched his blooper reel from that season too

[Craig_H]

How many did Emile get in that season with us? must be near 30?

Only 14 in the league from 36 appearances. 22 in all competitions from 56 appearances.

Darwin’s prolific season at Benfica was far better. 26 goals from 28 appearances in the league and 34 goals from 41 appearances in all competitions.

Heskey’s best goalscoring season doesn’t come close.

[Le Chef]

No 78 on the Granuiad's top 100

[Slinky Skills]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67700011

[Harv]

1) I hadn’t made up my mind in his first game. I probably haven’t completely still. But we can only go by what we see and you’re ignoring the evidence that’s right in front of you.

2) No, every touch doesn’t need to be perfect and every shot doesn’t need to go in. That’s just silly, hyperbolic and dissolves any credibility in your argument. It’s strawman. There’s a middle ground between “every shot goes in” and 2 goals in 13 PL games. It’s not an unreasonable ask for a forward to be in that middle ground somewhere.

3) the context of the “dumb” comments is purely relating to footballing intelligence, nothing to do with “IQ”. I’m fairly sure you know that.


4) I picked out that run because I remembered it. We can discuss the kicking the ball away, getting booked and immediately sarcastically clapping the officials, risking a sending off - if you prefer?

5) One can make valid criticisms of Salah too. He probably gets less stick than Darwin, yes. Perhaps due to the 11 goals 7 assists in the league from 17 games and what he’s done since he joined us? I’d say that’s what we call “credit in the bank”.

If Darwin had put up those numbers, had 6 years of brilliant numbers for us and didn’t unfortunately have a raft of good chances missed, he’d probably get the same kind of slack when he doesn’t have a great game.

We can debate it all day but the facts are there, we can all see the numbers, the missed/converted chances ratio and the performances. Nobody wants him to fail. That being said, the comment, criticism, praise and assessment of him is based on what he actually does on the pitch.

Ok we're doing the numbers thing...

1) Im not ignoring anything. I just don't scrutinise his every touch like others. There's good and bad with him. But the potential is massive. What hasn't helped is our own fans jumping on his back since his first game. People can choose to ignore that, but its true. Actually it probably wasn't even his first game! It was preseason footage. The narrative of him not being able to control a ball or shoot was spun up by rival fans and some here just lapped that **** up. "we've bought a lemon" etc.

2) Read a match day thread if you think thats hyperbole, or even twitter. It's not an argument to dissolve, Its a fact. The lad can do 3 really good things and barely gets a comment, one bad touch and there will be about 5-6 people frothing at the mouth jumping on it. Make of that what you will.

3) No, im pretty sure people are saying he's just flat out dumb. Hence the not being able to learn English jibes etc....but pretty sure you knew that.

4) No, you picked that moment, so don't try change the subject to suit the agenda. Yes, those other things were bad, but you have to factor in that he's a moronic, hot headed, south American with **** hair that cant speak english, cant stay onside, cant shoot, cant pass, cant trap a ball...****, im surprised he can even stand up without falling over he's that ****.

5) "credit in the bank" doesn't work for me. When youre misplacing simple passes, running into defenders for fun and missing tap in headers/sitters in front of goal and just generally playing like ass, it doesn't really matter how many you scored in previous seasons. Thats a pretty dim small-time attitude tbh.