Thierry Henry explains why Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez reminds him of a ‘young Luis Suarez’
Nunez #Nunez
Liverpool are a tale of two teams. They’ve struggled in the Premier League so far this season, sitting ninth with only 16 points, but finished second in their Champions League group behind Napoli with 15 points despite playing half as many matches as they have in the Premier League. But nothing describes the dichotomy of Liverpool like their key striker Darwin Nunez.
Scoring in their 2-0 victory over Napoli — handing the Italian side their first defeat of the season, Nunez has brought his tally to seven goals and one assist in all competitions averaging a return every 107 minutes. When Nunez gets the ball, he’s thinking about nothing but lashing it into the back of the net which is shown by his 6.67 shots attempted per 90 minutes, nobody else in the Premier League is over five. This is almost double his attempts at Benfica, but he’s in a higher paced attack at Liverpool and has also spent time coming off of the bench due to struggles integrating into the team defensively.
“I think he needs confidence, and the confidence that I’m talking about is when you’re at a club and feel like you’re going to play week in and week out. You’re a bit more cold in front of goal because he wants to please so much and do so much and he wants to wow the Liverpool fans. Sometimes he rushes it,” CBS Sports analyst Thierry Henry said about what Nunez needs to improve. “I went through that. When you come in as a big signing and just overdo it at times. Coming in after Sadio Mane, that’s not easy to do and you just overdo it instead of being calm and finishing.”
You can feel that in some of his attempts on goal, where the best chance is actually him laying it off to an open Liverpool attacker instead of firing a tame shot at the keeper or over the bar. But when he scores more goals for the team, each one will provide a level of confidence and allow Klopp to play him with more freedom as well. It’s especially hard for Nunez when what he does will be compared to Erling Haaland at Manchester City due to both coming to the Premier League on expensive deals in the same summer, but they’re two very different soccer players.
Haaland doesn’t need as many touches as Nunez to impact a game, as he’s a clinical shooter instead of a volume shooter like Nunez, but where Nunez makes up for things is by popping up and shooting from everywhere to maximize his chances each match. Pressing for chances has seen Nunez’s shot accuracy fall from Portugal, but once it clicks, it will in a big way.
“He’s the type of guy where when he gets one then things will come. I don’t think he’s a finisher like Robbie Fowler but not a lot of people are finishers like Robbie Fowler, but he has goals in him. He’s a bit more of a handful,” Henry said. “Sometimes he will rush up a bit like Alexis Sanchez or a young Luis Suarez when you felt like things were bounding off of him and stuff like that but when you start to master what you’re good at, then you can control it better. And I think that will happen to him. I think he can do that.”
Removed from his red card against Crystal Palace for a headbutt, things are already beginning to click into place for Nunez as he scored four goals during the month of October for Liverpool before picking up a minor hamstring injury and missing their loss against Nottingham Forest. While the Reds also lost to Leeds United, Nunez’s bright showing helped seal the Napoli victory and can be used as a building block. What Jurgen Klopp will be hoping for is that the World Cup doesn’t derail the progress that Nunez is making because on this current path, December is set to be quite a month for the Uruguayan striker.