Darwin Nunez is truly one of the most polarising figures in football these days, but what makes him so?
Liverpool bought the Uruguayan striker for around 80 million euros last season after the departures of Sadio Mane and Divock Origi. Nunez even adopted the Belgian’s iconic Liverpool No.27, but that heavy price tag did put him under scrutiny from the beginning of his time at Anfield.
Not to mention a certain Norwegian had joined Liverpool’s title rivals, Manchester City.
Immediately the media had made a match up between Nunez and Haaland, for being their star strikers for their respective teams and also having similar hair-do’s.
Their first meeting would come immediately when Liverpool faced Man City in the Community Shield, where Nunez would score and Haaland wouldn’t. This showed early promise for the Uruguayan, however this would be far from how the season played out.
Nunez scored on his Premier League debut against Fulham but would struggle to be consistent for the next few weeks. Nunez was also very passionate, which is what all the Liverpool fans adore about him, he will chase down balls, he will track back and he has an incredible work rate.
However that passion can backfire. In a high intensity match against Crystal Palace at Anfield, he was riled up by Joachim Andersen, to whom which Nunez retaliated with a headbutt that got him sent off.
From then on the chaos truly ensued.
Nunez would go on to squander quite easy chances but score absolute worldies each game, which made him infamous for being chaotic. His inconsistency wasn’t helped by Liverpool’s struggles last season as he ended on 17 goal contributions last season.
Before the start of this season, manager Jurgen Klopp said that he had settled in better now and was even able to speak a little English already.
With Liverpool’s “2.0” rebuild complete, Nunez seemed a completely different animal on the pitch. He seemed more composed, aware, spatially intelligent and he was more creative setting up a lot of chances for his teammates, particularly Mo Salah.
He still has continued his habit of missing point blank chances and scoring absolute bangers, but that’s what makes him a joy to watch for everyone. His unpredictability is truly a nightmare for defenders but absolute cinema for us to watch.
He already has matched his 17 goal contributions from last year and Klopp has said that he hasn’t even reached his peak. He has scored winners against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest recently, while scoring two absolute bangers last night in the Europa League against Sparta Praha.
His chaos may know no end, but so may his potential.
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