2nd in the hierarchy. I’ve given you plenty of examples of our regular starters who are performing at a high level (which Nunez isn’t), out of which you took out and imagined that Quansah played a third of last season ahead of Konate. Of course you have different periods or games when it’s different.
Again, unfortunately, you look at everything through numbers and goal contributions. That’s pretty difficult in evaluating players, different players, their qualities, styles, etc.
What is a stellar performer at Wolves? Jota was one of their best players, wasn’t world class, but he came in to finally raise the level of quality behind our front 3, add competition, cover those 2-3 positions and potentially be part of the future after them, which he has almost succeeded.
Jota and Nunez are not the same types of players, yet it’s pretty obvious who’s been a better and more useful player than us so far. And that is not only my opinion, bias, or narrative. And Nunez is in his 3rd season, which is enough to start judging.
Would Nunez overtake Jota (or simply become a success for us) if you gave him 41 more games for Liverpool, without Jota? Who knows, but first Nunez has to prove to Slot that he deserves to mostly start ahead of Jota, when they’re all fit.
I’m repeating, Jota is also adored, but he’s also not a footballing God. He has his weaknesses like they all do. I’m closer to the opinion that we’ll need a new striker soon. But Jota is perfect to be in our first 15 players or so. With Nunez, I don’t see much point going forward with him as a squad option, if he doesn’t tick enough boxes for us.
Nunez at Liverpool is not a blip, it’s not a Crouch 18 games drought. It’s been more or less a constant thing. He hasn’t worked out so far. Not hopeless, there’s been positives here and there, but more flop than success.
22 year old or 24, £20m or £85m, I’d still be talking about him. He’s been brought in to be a protagonist, not mainly a developing project for the future. It needs to happen now, it should’ve already started happening, or it should start happening very soon.
His price tag is absolutely an aspect of the topic, it cannot be ignored, when we talk in detail about Nunez, what happened, what is happening and what might happen. But I can also look at him only football wise, just as the player I see. Like I did Voronin, someone on a free.
Yet it’s pretty clear for example that Mac Allister is a regular starter here so far, showed quality pretty much immediately, got promoted to the leadership group, so we can see clearly what we’re getting from him now and that we want to build a future with him also. Which isn’t the case with Nunez.
Trent is still our first choice RB, that’s not even worth discussing, regardless of Bradley’s promising performances when he stepped in. What happens in the future, that’s another thing.
Key starters in terms of quality and who we trust on merit more than others, is not only those injury-free robots like Salah who almost never gets rested. We had and have a lot of those, it’s not only 2-3. We wouldn’t be where we are if there were so few.
Things don’t always work like a simple ‘click’ in football. For a while in Nunez’s time here, in which he was and is still useful, I guess it was pretty hard to find a serious buyer for him. Chelsea were actually rumoured to be interested I think two summers ago (2023). But that’s just a bit of smoke.
Now, as he will most probably complete 3 seasons at Liverpool and head into his 4th, with 3 years left on his deal (not ideal, if he’s still not performing well enough, let alone impressing), we might look at things and start making decisions. And again, that’s not only me, there are articles, journalists, pundits and a lot of fans talking about it. I’m certain that the club is doing that also.
Because not even Jota or Diaz seem like the answer to be that regular, key striker for us. Especially with Salah playing his final season(s). And it will be “easier” or less difficult to find a new, performing, goalscoring striker than a Salah “clone” on the right wing.
Nunez might have to accept something lower than Liverpool after us, perhaps a smaller club, but a competitive team, might still be willing to take a gamble with him. Unfortunately, I think the biggest gamble someone took in his career will end up being us. But it’s no drama, I’m well aware that it’s not the first time and not the last time.
He’s much closer to leaving than I don’t know, signing a new deal and getting a big vote of confidence for the future from he club. Which he probably would’ve got if he had been a success so far. Even in the middle of that, getting 6, or please let’s be economically sane, 5 of his 6 contract years… that’s too much. We cannot go with players so long, hoping that “they will all peak at around 28 (they won’t) and therefore deserve the same chance”. It doesn’t work like that. Not at Liverpool. In football.
3-4 years at Liverpool, in this context especially, is more than enough. He has great support, two coaches, different shapes, different team mates in positions closest to him. What else is needed? 41 more games than Jota? His 28th or 29th birthday? To realize that he won’t succeed enough here or that perhaps his ceiling isn’t that of a top player?
