Darwin Núñez

[Kenneth]

The year we didn’t play in Europe. I think that tweet counts as grasping at straws tbh. And I wouldn’t care if he’d scored like richarlison if he’s overall contribution had been as good as Suarez.

[Buzzo]

I agree. But anything for a bit of peace eh?

[Kenneth]

I get that the team has been struggling this season but that’s at least in part because Núñez was hitting the post from six yards with an open goal, he’s been part of the problem.

(This is more fun).

[Buzzo]

He currently seems a fundamentally flawed signing. He doesn’t seem suited to the way we play, or are going to play at all. I’d be interested to know what the plan was. I think Jota sometimes seems to struggle with the requirements as well, but he has had a knack of scoring big goals for us.

Joys getting fit and in form has really only made things worse for Nunez.

[Doc_Piptorious]

He currently seems a fundamentally flawed signing. He doesn’t seem suited to the way we play, or are going to play at all. I’d be interested to know what the plan was. I think Jota sometimes seems to struggle with the requirements as well, but he has had a knack of scoring big goals for us.

Joys getting fit and in form has really only made things worse for Nunez.

Think (guess) the plan was to do what City looked to be planning to do by bringing Haaland in.

Big strong direct finisher up front top create a less intricate but more pummeling type attack as the old system got phased out. But the capitulation of our midfield and right back in terms of form was not forseen or forseen to happen quite as quickly.


We have even, in recent times, pretty much copied the inverted full back system that City used in order to shore things up somewhat. Though our version of that is far more leaden footed than how City used to implement it. City used it to create overloads in the middle with the inverted fullback then dropping back to create a flat back four when we were being put under pressure and/or when the other team broke quickly, we seem to use it to accomadate TAA and his seemingly lack of mobility or lack of a willingness to track back all of a sudden at the age of 24.

Think how Benfica played against us (and against out good teans in the CL) was how we saw our new system (attacking system that is) and the interest in Tchouameni last summer and the buying of Gakpo kind of backs that up when you look at the type of midfielders and attackers Benfica had around Darwin.


Instead we ended up with a quick physical striker that relies on movement and clever play around him and put him out wide where he would be expected to be the sort of creative player that he needs to play off of, and at the same time saw our midfield and main deep playmaker (TAA) pretty much become slow plodders for the majority of the season.

Perfect storm of the team freefalling to crap standards and also of a new striker quickly going from the centre piece of a new attack to being a square peg in a round hole as he could not adapt to what was going on around him within the team.

[danperkins]

He currently seems a fundamentally flawed signing. He doesn’t seem suited to the way we play, or are going to play at all. I’d be interested to know what the plan was. I think Jota sometimes seems to struggle with the requirements as well, but he has had a knack of scoring big goals for us.

Joys getting fit and in form has really only made things worse for Nunez.

[labourRed]

He's raw, but technically was far better at Benfica so that perhaps points to either trying too hard, not knowing his role/fellow players or lack of confidence.

He is blessed with pace though, the other things can be worked on. He's not the biggest issue we have, for sure.

[Pablo]

His feet are too fast for his brain. He needs to slow things down a touch and stop rushing everything. He tries to play at the same frenetic pace as Diaz but he's not skillful enough to pull it off.

He definitely doesn't feel like a natural fit for us. He stands out from all of our other signings. I do believe that was the point though, we intentionally went out to sign someone different, to give us a different option.

Even though he was all over the place yesterday he still had an impact and won us the crucial penalty.

I think as part of the front 5/6 in rotation he is still a great option to have but I do agree with Shaggy that if he has another indifferent season next season that could be the end for him here.

[baitman]

He needs to play through the middle.
It doesn't help when our right winger will never lay quick through balls as he's always looking to cut inside and have a go at goal himself, the greedy diving overpaid one footed prima donner kebab

[Charly]

How many ****-average players have had a blinder at Anfield? glad we didnt sign them all.

Problem for me was his awkwardness doing the basics. Simple passes, layoffs, trying to turn with the ball. From day one he didnt look quite right for the highest level. Its a shame, but it makes me think that the story of Klopp falling in love based on one or two games against us was true.

Either that or his game has completely collapsed. But then he is bit a mentality monster. It sounds like Klopp is losing patience because of his failure to start learning English (which I would find tough to do... I have no head for languages)... all of which point to him running out of time.

I think that we would take a massive loss as he is a 20m-25m player tops, if Diaz and Gakpo had a 35m price tag each. His poor language skills might mean the list of potential buyers will be very short.

[Pablo]

I think that we would take a massive loss as he is a 20m-25m player tops, if Diaz and Gakpo had a 35m price tag each. His poor language skills might mean the list of potential buyers will be very short.

Nah he's worth more than that IMO. Gakpo and Diaz were bargains. Add on the Premier League tax and I'd still want ~£50m for him if we sold him. He has big potential and there is a shortage of good strikers.

I think part of the problem is we've been utterly spoiled as fans with forwards over the past 6/7 years. Mane, Salah and Firmino were all unbelievably class from pretty much day one.

The "next generation" were always going to suffer compared to them and with Nunez being a particularly "rough diamond" he really does stand out a lot.

[Harv]

The year we didn’t play in Europe. I think that tweet counts as grasping at straws tbh. And I wouldn’t care if he’d scored like richarlison if he’s overall contribution had been as good as Suarez.

i call bull****

[Doc_Piptorious]

How many ****-average players have had a blinder at Anfield? glad we didnt sign them all.

Problem for me was his awkwardness doing the basics. Simple passes, layoffs, trying to turn with the ball. From day one he didnt look quite right for the highest level. Its a shame, but it makes me think that the story of Klopp falling in love based on one or two games against us was true.

Either that or his game has completely collapsed. But then he is bit a mentality monster. It sounds like Klopp is losing patience because of his failure to start learning English (which I would find tough to do... I have no head for languages)... all of which point to him running out of time.

I think that we would take a massive loss as he is a 20m-25m player tops, if Diaz and Gakpo had a 35m price tag each. His poor language skills might mean the list of potential buyers will be very short.

The flip side is that from his first day almost our entire team did not look right either.

I still think he was bought to front a total change in how our attack was to be set up and that he was to be the sharp end of the attack and little else.

Our team then fell to pieces and Darwin went down with that ship for reasons both in and out of his hands imo.

Someone here compared him to Torres some time back (more in physical attributes and what those could potentially bring than skill levels) and I think that was sort of the gameplan behind getting him.

A fast strong frontman who is there to get goals and drag defenders all over the place when the ball enters the box.

A more mobile Haaland if you will.

Would have loved to have seen how Darwin would have looked in the Liverpool team of the season before last. The one with a midfield that for the most part was functioning to a high level and full backs that were feeding chances into the box.

Next season will no doubt be a make or break one for him (though even if he fails next season that does not mean another club will buy him from us), but I think he is still in Klopp's mind (though maybe not quite as much as prior to this season) as being the finisher for the new attack and I still think Salah is PSG bound this summer (them announcing last night that Messi is gone in the summer and that they will not be activating the option year is only reinforcing that hunch for me).

Think this season has been a rough one for Darwin in many respects. New country, new club, the team he joined pretty much collapsing in terms of form and formation, struggling to learn the langauge, new baby and not having teh skillset to be able to adapt to being played in new positions.

Some of those things are on him, some are out of his hands but all played a part imo.

Kindest way to look at his season is to say it has been one that has highlighted his weakness/shortcomings as much as his strengths and that he either needs to work to earn a spot as the focal point of our attack or find a way to adapt his skillset to match however we setup next season otherwise he may become one that gets seen as a failure for us even if he does then leave and excels at another team.

[Mark79]

Darwin never seemed like a seamless fit for us, but he’s also come into to team at a time when it’s trying to re-establish its identity.

Last night our attacking play was disjointed across the team, it’s not like everything was flowing freely and then only breaking down when it got to Nunez.

The midfield couldn’t find a ball into a teammate in the final third. Most of Salah’s passes in the box seemed to get cut out. Diaz was handful with his dribbling, but never really found a final pass or a shot either.

[RedReet]

Nunez started finding form about the same time Diaz got injured and I've been busting to see them together again. Fair to say, a bit underwhelming.

I still think he'll come good though. Confidence is shot at the minute and it shows, but I think he'll kick on in pre-season. Just not sure what position though.