Darwin Núñez

[Doc_Piptorious]

A lot of people's SM persona is who they are so not sure how they'd let some else represent in that way. Just bin the lot of it

That bit will not happen.

[Buzzo]

I think their various sponsors would have something to say about them binning their SM presence.

Just get someone else to upload a relevant set of pics and post the typical ‘great win onto the next one’ or ‘we go again’ type of banal posts the guys who have it sorted out manage to do. Going online to defend yourself is insanity.

[Kenneth]

If we'd sold Darwin in January and Jayden Danns had got his minutes for the rest of the season, would we be worse off on the pitch? I get not wanting to disrupt the squad mid-season and I think that's the only reason he's still here.

[SB]

Yeah shipping someone out who appears popular with his teammates could have had dire consequences with moral etc . He deserves his winners medal so here’s hoping we make it happen.

[Scratch]

I'd rather see him start than come on with 30 mins left. If it's only him and Jota, then Jota as a supersub makes more sense, he is probably more composed in front of goal. Let Darwin run them ragged, maybe miss a few chances and bring on a more clinical, fox-in-the-box specialist if we need a winning goal.

[dom9]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/feb/21/the-darwin-verse-may-be-a-mad-world-for-slot-but-he-needs-to-keep-nunez-onside?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The Darwin-verse may be a mad world for Slot but he needs to keep Núñez onside

Barney Ronay

Telling Núñez off in public feels unnecessary at this late stage, like shoehorning a needless car chase into a film’s third act



Stop getting Darwin Núñez wrong! At the very least, can we please stop comparing him unfavourably with Andy Carroll. This should be taken as a general cease-and-desist plea from those of us with an interest in preserving the Carroll legacy. But it also feels like an important note of distinction in a week when Arne Slot has unexpectedly made Núñez into a person of interest in the Premier League title race by dwelling on his now-famous miss against Aston Villa.

There may be sound internal reasons for this. Slot is very shrewd. The season has so far been an exercise in control and smart judgment. But from the outside, telling Núñez off in public feels unnecessary at this late stage, like shoehorning jeopardy into the third act of a generic Hollywood movie, the needless car chase four-fifths of the way through Paddington 5: Paddington Harder.

Possibly, and all conclusions will as ever be outcome-based, this will end up being a significant mistake. But it’s also interesting in its own right, and for various reasons.

First the Núñez/Carroll dynamic. This comparison is purely visual. Both are tall and have slick dark ponytails in the “Croydon facelift” style. The music press used to do this a lot, grouping bands together on the basis of hairstyles. Núñez-as-Carroll is like listing both Spandau Ballet and Soft Cell as New Romantics in the early 1980s.

Both had quiffy, feathery haircuts. But watching an early Spandau Ballet performance is like being jostled by angry handsome plumbers shouting Marvin Gaye songs. Whereas listening to Marc Almond is like perching on a stool in a basement bar while a skinny, unsettling man sings Jacques Brel-style torch ballads dressed only in a metal codpiece and nipple clamps. Both good. Both with good hair. But contrasting vibes.

In football terms the key difference between Núñez and Carroll is spatial and range-based. Carroll at his best was a set of powerful and surprisingly precise patterns enacted in a small space. Núñez, by contrast, is about creating space with unpredictable movements over a much larger area.

Carroll was a footballer of the skies, which led to him being compared to many things during his career. The carcass of an ox siege-catapulted over the castle walls. A mattress thrown from a balcony on to a crowded dancefloor. But his best moments were at close-quarters and precise, from the famous header for England against Sweden at Euro 2012, perfect spatial awareness, elite neck-muscle flex, to those overhead kicks where he seemed somehow to have turned the rest of the world upside down while he remained static, a foot suddenly where his head used to be, a miracle of explosive control in a very narrow range.

Núñez operates at ground level, and more expansively. There was the goal at Brentford last season where he ran 60 yards, just eating the space, and produced a finish so absurdly out-there, a floating miracle-scoop on the move, that it seemed to really upset people, to say, yes, this is frankly unsustainable. This season he produced a winning turn at the same ground when he came late into a tight, settled game and broke it open with his more random angles.

And now we have this, Wednesday night, That Miss, and Slot’s decisions to dwell on it as a significant note after the game. Is this a sign of being rattled? Probably not. Slot is super-smart. Dutch people often just say things. There may have been a dressing room imperative to employ the nuclear option of going public. Maybe being rattled is OK anyway. Football is rattling. People who win also get rattled. We just don’t hold it against them for years on the internet.

Slot was also very clear it was Núñez’s perceived lack of effort afterwards that bothered him, not the miss itself. This makes sense. A Núñez who gets discouraged when he misses is basically a 1% Núñez, the butterfly-lifespan Núñez. This person cannot exist on a football pitch.

On the other hand is it actually wise to do this when everyone out there is looking for cracks and signs of stress, a plateauing that could, in the broadcasters’ most fevered dreams, turn into a choke-based entertainment vehicle? If Slot really doesn’t want that moment to “get in his head”, how is hearing his manager talk about it going to help with this?

The real objection is that to raise it in public seems to miss what Núñez’s role is going to be in a successful title run with 12 games to go and the need to just not collapse. Asking him to be hyper-professional, shaming him in public. Is it the moment? In this situation Núñez is the spirit animal, the hype man, the goodwill mascot, there at the end, beaming and dancing and firing a champagne cork into his own eye.

Núñez is also the only part of the entity Slot inherited from Jürgen Klopp that doesn’t really work properly, which adds a slight note of ingratitude. It is important to be clear at this stage. Núñez has not been a success. His transfer fee remains an absurdity.

It hasn’t all been bad. He was good last season when Mohamed Salah was injured. But he is also a player who spends a lot of time sprinting away from the game, making all the right runs, just not necessarily in the right order. He misses a lot. He doesn’t have that ice-cold filter. He isn’t a good fit in a high-precision team. The Darwin-verse is a looser, chancier place. It makes him great fun to watch as a neutral, exhilarating and maddening if you’re a supporter, and a one-man heart attack if you’re his manager.


As a result he has often been treated as a toxic inheritance, nobody really wanting to take the rap for signing him. The former Liverpool data analyst Ian Graham wrote an interesting book about his time at the club called How To Win the Premier League. Sadio Mané (massive success) is mentioned 50 times, Salah (even massiver success) 41 times and Lionel Messi (random, but great brand recognition) 129 times. Darwin, who was signed on his watch: zero times.

But then, Graham has a job to do and a company to promote, not to mention his Pitch Control model designed to “mathematically understand the game the way a professional footballer understands it”, which isn’t really going to fit here. Throw your calculator down the stairs and then stamp on it. This is the best way into the maths of Darwin’s game.

Graham has pointed out in interviews that it was Klopp who made the call on Núñez based on two good performances against Liverpool. And in fairness he also admits that the data said yes, that the model had him as “one of the best young strikers in the world”.

This is also significant. In many ways Núñez-to-Liverpool is a victim of modern metrics. What we have here is a set of elite physical attributes crowbarred into the outline of an elite footballer. Take his top speed, his distances covered, a rare combination of height, pace and agility. Add one good goalscoring season. It kind of makes sense in a Klopp attack, although not in a Slot team, where picking Núñez is like living in an immaculate 17th-floor apartment with an overexcited labrador who won’t stop knocking over your laptop, spraying the Barcelona chair with mud, drinking out of the toilet.

This is also why Núñez is so much fun to watch. Modern football can be tediously risk-averse and systems-based. Perhaps the real lesson of Núñez is that building a team or trying to understand talent should never go too far one way into either data or feelings. An old-school Kenny Dalglish-style sniff test would probably save you from signing Núñez. The data wanglers could stop you spending £30m on Carroll.

There is still a place for Núñez in this world. Probably he should be at a less overclass club, using his energy to disrupt more orderly teams. He may even end up winning Liverpool the league this season in a more arms-length kind of way. There is no doubt Arsenal would be a more potent team right now if they’d taken a chance and splashed out on a goalscorer.

Why didn’t they? Because data says this is a risky move that often doesn’t pay? Hmm. And who is the most persuasive current example of this, living proof that when in doubt it’s better to save your money and go for control? Clue: he’s tall and has a ponytail.

This is perhaps a stretch. For now, 12 games from the end, there is surely more to be gained from taking it steady with Núñez, from tickling his neck and just making him feel good.

[Cerbie]

Well he has tried putting his arm around him, that hasn’t worked, maybe a challenge will?

[Scratch]

He's not being used right at this point in time...he's under pressure due to form issues already, and then we bring him on when a game is a stalemate, , the cvrowd are edgy, and we expect him to take that one chance that comes his way. Play him from the start, let him miss a few, let him work his socks off against defenders, let him make chances for others. Don't bring him on cold, expecting a miracle. Almost his first touch on Weds was that chance he had, a chance on his weaker foot that I've seen plenty of "better" strikers miss.

If you want a clinical striker on, against tired defenders and tired minds, then bring on Jota for 30 mins. Not the other way round.

[Tatterdemalion]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...droidApp_Other

TL;DR, but Slot didn't really criticise him at all - he pointed out that all strikers miss and that is forgivable, but that letting your head drop isn't. Pretty sound advice for a striker actually, and to be fair to Nunez, until that moment, nobody needed to tell him that.

Doesn't change the fact that he needs to move somewhere where there is less pressure. I reiterate my previous. There is a good player in there, but not one with composure. He'll never be world class - neither will I, so I forgive him for that, but we need world class strikers. Not his fault Liverpool thought he could do it. I'd give it a go as well!

[baitman]

I had nunez down to score and I'd have got a 2-3 prediction right.
He'll never know the sorrow and anguish he's leaves behind.

[BobTheCharmer]

I think slots thrown him under the bus a little.

I thought Darwin chased back well and was tackling back right at the end of the game. Obviously slot had a better view and thought otherwise. Seems an odd way of trying to get a reaction from the player at a crucial part of the season. A bit Brendan Rodgers for me. It will be interesting to see how next season pans out, as we potentially have a few high profile players on their way out. If we don't hit the ground running the pressure will be piled on. I think slot has done brilliantly but it's 100% not his team and the group know how to win games as we did similar last year.

Regardless, Darwin is going in the summer and it's probably best for both parties.

[peterbread]

More from Arne Slot on Darwin Nunez: "I wasn't only hard on him. But for the second time in a row I wasn't happy with his work effort, against Wolves and against Villa. "I can't accept if a player doesn't give everything. That is clear. I can accept it once but twice was a bit too much. That's why I addressed it. "Not that I'm all of a sudden very angry with him. If you miss a chance, you need to be fighting for the team. I'm not saying he didn't do that at all, but it wasn't the usual Darwin, the one that is loved by the fans."

[SB]

Yep fair do’s to Arne. I’ve no issue with that.

[Harv]

His work rate has dropped right off ever since the Saudi links.

He knows he's gone at the end of the season and has probably checked out

[labourRed]

His work rate has dropped right off ever since the Saudi links.

He knows he's gone at the end of the season and has probably checked out

As simple as that. Problem is we aren't exactly mid table and if we were he'd be gone. Not the brightest kid to be fair.