Darwin NUNEZ: 2022/23

A parable or an analogy for Liverpool’s fitness struggles???

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This is why opponents would foul Mané early and often trying to put him off his game. They were scared of him. Darwin presents the same sort of problem. He is a huge threat to any defensive plans

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Do you mean when he’s not playing and Firmino Diaz and Jota are out? Yes I’d imagine it’d be quite difficult for any teams attack to function that way.

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I know what you mean but Jota and Firmino are just back from injury and they still looked relatively dangerous last night (well Jota anyhow). I don’t think can conclusively say it doesn’t work without him when we were having to get Jones and Ox cover him.

Jota hasn’t played much with Núñez anyhow if you were to play both. Strangely I do think we miss the way he defends mind.

Anyway, beautiful touch for his goal.

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His goal was class. Messi or Ronaldo does it and we’d never hear the end of it.

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And lot of tracking back. Such a proper team player.

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Yeah saw that tracking back against Newcastle and saw it tonight, kids got a bright future hopefully and he is starting to get goals per game which is always useful.

His move that led to that Salah chance was exceptional and if we had got something out of it I would have been pointing at that.

Held off the player well didn’t put VVD under pressure and was able to turn him and turn defence into attack within seconds.

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Yeah, I forgot about that altogether. Never thought we would end up creating a chance from the position we were in.

Yup, if Salah had scored or we had not lost 5-2 I think I might have mentioned it a lot more, just felt a bit gut punched.

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I rarely question the wisdom of the manager…

But taking him off last night was a mistake.

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Might be down to the medical teams advice.

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Only fighter we have at times it feels.

If Klopp did it on medical reasons fair enough as we need him in as many games as possible going forward.

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Brilliant finish, I think he almost scored 2 like that at Fulham in the first league game this season. The nice link up and understanding between him and Salah continues.

Obviously it’s a move he’s very comfortable doing, good to have in his arsenal.

I was also satisfied with his work rate, his average position last night was quite deeper than Salah’s. It’s good to see that when he plays on the left, he understands the team’s dynamic that he can’t play as high as Mo all the time.

Long term, it’s still questionable how we will build a functional attack/side with him central and Salah on the right, because I’m not sure if him on the left is the way to build.

Short term, just great to have him fit and giving 100% whether he plays central or in the left channel.

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I’d expect Diaz to slot back in on the Left.

Yeah, in a situation where Jota, Diaz and Gakpo are all fit and in normal form, we probably won’t see Nunez as much on the left. But then we still haven’t seen us working well with him up top and Salah on the right. That might go into next season, how we make it work that the team is well balanced.

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I only wish he could play the central role like he does the one on the flank. I can see why it would be tempting for Klopp to stick with wing role for him for the time being (I don’t know how it looks statistically but to my eye, his tracking back is awe-inspiring, possessed like Diaz). For team’s long-term benefit, though, I hope he nails down that centre forward role.

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I think the odd one out in a long term build is Salah.

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Yeah, probably, but none of our other senior forwards can play (well) there and all are right footed… Man, I wish Saka was ours, he’d be the ideal signing. I’m not forgetting Gordon, nor Doak but they are still extremely young and inexperienced, especially in comparison to Salah.

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Truly phenomenal player. Full of quality, personality, endeavour and commitment….starting to finish off chances first time now aswell , keeps on doing that and we’re looking at a player who will be one of the best in the world in his position once the likes of Benzema and Lewa call it time.

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