Thought the rumours last year of him being a bit thick were bollocks but maybe there is some truth in them 
So thatās three playersā¦
If we wish to pedantic and letās as you were earlier 
Worked very hard, won the penalty and yet he didnāt have a particularly nice game. Some sloppy touches and for the most part didnāt seem to be on the same wavelength with his teammates.
True that, balanced view. And penalty was very soft.
I wonāt argue with that. He has it in spades, itās obvious. But has he the willingness and intelligence to get that small additional percentage and become a truly exceptional player? Time will tell.
15 goals and four assists in 2ā300 minutes, for a new player finding his feet in a new league, new language, new team-mates and looking at the context of a difficult season for almost everyone at the club (or rather, a shite one), is more than honorable. No issues there at all.
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He struggled in his first year at Benfica, tried to hard, his second year was a breakout.
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Not a starting XI player at the moment. Weāll see during/after pre-season if thereās enough improvement to win a place. Itās not like heās far, but there are clear reasons why he hasnāt been starting much lately.
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Yeah struggled again today truth be told but no doubt he will find his feet and be the Darwin we know he can be on a more consistent basis.
No concerns over him what so ever.
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Thinking of him now working with Bielsa in Uruguay (Bielsa will love the midfielders they have!).
Hopefully he will not be too confused, because the messages he will get from Bielsa and Klopp, especially in the press/defending phase of the game, will be completely different.
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Why?
Because we press completely differently.
We are ball oriented, they will be man oriented.
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You must think he is completely thick if he believe he cannot adapt.
He is probably much smarter than people allow, but some sort of narrative is being set about him.
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I didnāt say he cannot adapt, though that will also have to do with time (and how much he earns it).
But itās clear that he has some learning to do and for a moment I imagined Kloppās instructions this summer vs Bielsaās instructions when heās with Uruguay.
Iām very open and curious to see how he can progress here, no agenda or narrative from my part. Thereās a reason why he didnāt play much centrally or much lately. No conspiracies or accidents.
He can go calmly into next season to prove whether he can be an important player here. More than that, weāll see if he earns it.
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Canāt get confused by two contradictory systems if you understand neither.
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15 goals and four assists isnāt a bad return for someone who had an inconsistent first season.
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Especially with the injuries and suspension he had.
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Two goals in the 7-0 drubbing of the mancs.
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I think thereās a lot more to come from Darwin. He had a tough first season, for lots of reasons, not least, he was trying to integrate, sans language, with a team that had a hangover and needed a new engine.
But the player I saw looked laden with threat.
Itās easy to talk about missed chances and awkward finishing. But the pace and power of the lad is something that doesnāt grow on trees. I fully expect him to sync up next season, in a new look forward line, and we wonāt look back.
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The encouraging thing with him is there were very few games where he didnt at least leave us asking how the hell he didnt score. As lost as he looked at times, and as frustrating as he could be, he caused a lot of havoc and caused chances to be created. He has work to do to integrate himself into the side, but there is a very good player bubbling there under the surface.
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He needs to be taking more of his chances next seasonā¦