Darwin Núñez

[Scratch]

He'll b e here next year.

[Kenneth]

A few weeks ago, everyone was saying what a great season he was having, now he’s dog **** and needs to be sold

The difference between responding to individual games or run of games and assessing his contribution over two years and looking to the future. And saying he’s not done enough/isn’t the right striker for us/is too wasteful etc, is not the same as calling him dog****.

[fidget]

A few weeks ago, everyone was saying what a great season he was having, now he’s dog **** and needs to be sold

It's hilarious.

[Irishnev]

He’s got 30 g/a this season with a rate of either a goal or assist every 87 mins - the numbers are really good and he has won us games such as Newcastle. However, he’s not a killer but neither is Diaz tbh and Salah’s finishing isn’t what it was. Jota is the only one we have now who you’d be confident to take a chance

At the sharp end of the season when things are on the line you need killers in front of goal and Darwin isn’t that. I’d buy a lethal striker and play Nunez from the left - sell Diaz

[Kenneth]

He scored 9 league goals last season. He has 11 so far this season, fighting it out with Richarlison for 13th place on the PL goal scores list, playing in the team top of the ‘big chances created’ league table. Newcastle have exactly half the number of big chances created and their number 9 has 17 league goals. Obviously, such like for like comparisons aren’t particularly informative, not sure why I bothered really, but he doesn’t score enough goals and that’s what we needed to buy. That’s it.

[labourRed]

A few weeks ago, everyone was saying what a great season he was having, now he’s dog **** and needs to be sold

[ame]https://twitter.com/themichaelowen/status/1759173574886133890[/ame]

The truth is somewhere in the middle. I think he's young enough to be coached into a more clinical forward.

We've three forward positions, he's certainly good enough for one of them IMO. But I certainly understand the frustration.

[Scratch]

A frontline of Jota, Nunez and Mo is our strongest, and Diaz can be swapped with Nunez as and when.

[Buzzo]

Diaz Jota Mo for me

One issue Darwin has is the quality of CFs we’ve signed previously that he is being compared to. Torres, Suarez, Firmino… he lacks the killer instinct of all of them.

He needs a big end to the season.

[Tatterdemalion]

There's a good player in Darwin - maybe a great one, but he's just too inconsistent to be trusted for a club that needs to win almost every game.

[Doc_Piptorious]

There's a good player in Darwin - maybe a great one, but he's just too inconsistent to be trusted for a club that needs to win almost every game.

Same arguement could be made for all our other attackers save for Mo though.




Diaz is very much hit and miss when it comes to goals and assists and is the attacker (again other than Mo) that gets played in his preferred/best position the most.

Gakpo blows hot and cold.


Jota is a really good finisher, but cannot rely on him to be available for most of a season so as a result he is generally only worth similar to to Darwin in terms of actual end product over a season.

[DerKrampus]

You can say the same for almost every 2nd striker in the top 6.

I'm not including players like Foden, Gordon or Havertz etc as they're wingers and not strikers.

Alvarez - Only scored 8
Jesus - Poor goal return
Nunez - Mercurial
Duran - Inexperienced
Richarlison - Cunt
Wilson - Injured

[Charly]

Problem.is the mix of strikers. Nunez doesnt fit in a team with Diaz as both dont finish very well. Needing 9/10 chances to score on average is **** at the elite level. You can pad out stats with goals and assists against **** in the euro and league cups, but the point is, we can do so much better. We have a centre foward who cant shoot very well. Realistically we need better to challange.

We could get rid of Diaz instead, but he brings the ball forward so well, which isnt always represented in the stats.

Im not against keeping Nunes either. He has his uses, but scoring goals is not something we can rely on. Scoring is instinctual for the best, and he doesnt have that, and we do really need that, especilly with Salah in his last year (and he really needs to up his game finishing wise too).

Yeah, we scored a lot. But the cracks are there. Goals scored is an important stat, but in relation to the number of shots missed or saved, what looks like a good number in isolation may not be in reality, compared to the rest of the field.

The best thing is that we create chances, so we should hopefully maintain that with different personnel.

[Buzzo]

You can say the same for almost every 2nd striker in the top 6.

I'm not including players like Foden, Gordon or Havertz etc as they're wingers and not strikers.

Alvarez - Only scored 8
Jesus - Poor goal return
Nunez - Mercurial
Duran - Inexperienced
Richarlison - Cunt
Wilson - Injured

Duran is a good at reflex finishes.

[Kenneth]

Problem.is the mix of strikers. Nunez doesnt fit in a team with Diaz as both dont finish very well. Needing 9/10 chances to score on average is **** at the elite level. You can pad out stats with goals and assists against **** in the euro and league cups, but the point is, we can do so much better. We have a centre foward who cant shoot very well. Realistically we need better to challange.

We could get rid of Diaz instead, but he brings the ball forward so well, which isnt always represented in the stats.

Im not against keeping Nunes either. He has his uses, but scoring goals is not something we can rely on. Scoring is instinctual for the best, and he doesnt have that, and we do really need that, especilly with Salah in his last year (and he really needs to up his game finishing wise too).

Yeah, we scored a lot. But the cracks are there. Goals scored is an important stat, but in relation to the number of shots missed or saved, what looks like a good number in isolation may not be in reality, compared to the rest of the field.

The best thing is that we create chances, so we should hopefully maintain that with different personnel.

I’m sure we’re just setting him up nicely for a hat trick today, fingers crossed.

[Tatterdemalion]

Problem.is the mix of strikers. Nunez doesnt fit in a team with Diaz as both dont finish very well. Needing 9/10 chances to score on average is **** at the elite level. You can pad out stats with goals and assists against **** in the euro and league cups, but the point is, we can do so much better. We have a centre foward who cant shoot very well. Realistically we need better to challange.

We could get rid of Diaz instead, but he brings the ball forward so well, which isnt always represented in the stats.

Im not against keeping Nunes either. He has his uses, but scoring goals is not something we can rely on. Scoring is instinctual for the best, and he doesnt have that, and we do really need that, especilly with Salah in his last year (and he really needs to up his game finishing wise too).

Yeah, we scored a lot. But the cracks are there. Goals scored is an important stat, but in relation to the number of shots missed or saved, what looks like a good number in isolation may not be in reality, compared to the rest of the field.

The best thing is that we create chances, so we should hopefully maintain that with different personnel.

I guess my point was not so much how many goals he gets over a season, more that for any given chance the result is a bit random ; with a player like Jota you can have more confidence. That matters when playing big teams where chances are thin. Let me ask the question in another way - would you want him taking 1 of 5 in a penalty shoot out for the Champs League?