Most people will naturally warm more to players who are: wild, physical, have pace, are aggressive.
All those things can be used in a positive way for the team if you can do it in a balanced way, but can be also part of the problem. Even more so under Slot, than under Klopp.
Nunez might think “being everywhere” is good and that’s how he improves, which in fact, might be trying to do too much, not being good for him or for the team.
Cavani was a player with some similar qualities, body frame, style, natural instinct. He also got his critics all his career for missing certain sitters and not being technically the “cleanest”. Which resulted in him, at times, also doing a job on the sides of an attack, acting like more of a supporting striker. He was really one of the most hard working forwards of his time. Who also got regularly high numbers of end product.
Let alone being a top class player, Nunez is struggling to even get to a Cavani level (which is still pretty high). That’s the best I was hoping for him and I’ll never close the gates for a player to suddenly, seriously improve. Please, let it happen. But it’s not.
His approach to an extent is fine, he’s generally willing to work, be a team player, assist. But he’s not making enough progress in other things, including (and not only!) finishing.
In 20+ years of watching football now, more often than not, players who were supposed to have all the tools in the world, but something either didn’t click or they didn’t have the intelligence or mentality to accomplish more, al the tools actually weren’t there or were overrated in the first place and the intelligence/mentality was underrated as hugely important factor. It’s not Messi’s right foot, or Beckham’s left foot. They can be incredible by not having certain things, but some things are fundamental.
Being unpredictable for opponents while also being unpredictable for us (okay, a bit less, since he’s our player, even if in a number of games it seems like we have 10 men and he’s playing another match), well… it’s not that great, is it.
After more than 2 seasons with us, you still struggle to see him do well within the teams needs in more than one way, in 2-3 games in a row, not to mention more. That is not a lot. A player of his age and physical capabilities, would be able to do it for around or more than 2-3 games. Doesn’t have to be all 90 minute performances, but starts in a row, without rotation from the start. But he hasn’t been able to do it. Because of a lack of quality and consistency. Which is why he’s not of the same importance as some other players. He figures regularly for us, but hasn’t made that position his own. It’s really as simple as that.
I do agree that there’s always at least 51% of bias in everything, but there’s a difference being a little bit biased and totally biased. I want all of our players to succeed, but that’s impossible and so far he hasn’t been the success we wanted, doesn’t look like he will be and there’s a time limit how long can that go on.
We can act like we’re all perfectly fine since his first day at the club to the last (he’s here so it must mean it’s all good, then when he leaves, a switch was just turned off), but it doesn’t work like that. And we can see it both in numbers and on the pitch.
He’s not hopeless like Carroll, Balotelli, Benteke (they all had their styles and strengths, different timings to move them on)… but so far it wasn’t enough and I doubt it will be.
Football is a bit more complex than bringing it down to numbers: goals and assists for attacking input and, what, miles/sprints/tackles for defensive input.
It doesn’t work like that, numbers or facts and what happens on the pitch are not perfectly aligned.
Stats can either confirm what eyes see and brain processes, or maybe suggest that the eyes are missing something.
And the financial aspect does matter, I’m afraid. For players themselves, they tell them don’t worry about what we (the club) paid for you, just go out there and do your thing. Which is fine from that perspective.
But yes, it does matter. Fee paid, wages, type of club that bought them in the football food chain, years of contract, clauses (or not)… it all influences partly when is the time when we can (if we want to, depending how much we want to) move on.
You get the odd Robbie Keane example when Liverpool decided to sell him back to Spurs (which also needs willingness from their side) already in January, because Rafa said, we would’ve gotten less money in the next summer window than in January.
It’s all connected and it matters, it’s how the game works.
But I haven’t seen much people (LFC or general football public) even talk that much about Nunez’s transfer fee, because a lot of us have probably given up on a certain ceiling from him and now it’s just “can you perform better than you are, while you’re here” or not.
I wasn’t convinced there’s a top player hiding in him, just waiting to be unlocked if “certain things click for him”. But you get more and more people who had that belief and are now changing their opinion, or the feeling has changed.
Based on numbers, game understanding and yes, feeling.
