He's just not good enough to be doing it week in week out for a top club.
I can see him at a mid table Spanish team having a decent career.
Would love to be proved wrong.
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To me Nunez has had long enough to prove his worth, his link up play is poor, his movement is mostly naïve, his first touch is poor, his decision making is questionable and his finishing is more miss than hit… but in the headless chicken department, he is really World Class 😵*💫 I dont know if its just a language issue, but that is no defence, if you take the money and want to succeed, learn the bloody language…
As a result of all of the above, imho his presence in the side I believe is just counter productive, and affects the teams overall performance and effectiveness, coming on as a sub is an option, but Nunez starting is just not an option for me…
He's just not good enough to be doing it week in week out for a top club.
I can see him at a mid table Spanish team having a decent career.
Would love to be proved wrong.
Those are Núñez goals & assist stats. They can be better.
The language complaint is nonsense. It was said of Keita too.
People should look at Bobby & Mané's interviews in their final years at LFC, hardly literate or much better than Darwin.
Looking at the performances I've seen, I'd speculate Darwin & Trent are being asked to prove themselves in terms of work rate predominantly. Darwins 5th for tackles per game to date in our PL campaign.
The CF role whether Jota or Núñez hasn't been that productive so far this season. Wingers Salah & Diaz not providing much.
Player Xg & Goals Scored in 6 PL games
Salah 3.93 & 4
Diaz 3.34 & 5
Jota 2.04 & 1
Sobozla 1.11 & 0
Robbo 0.45 & 0
Bradley 0.43 & 0
Gakpo 0.38 & 0
Núñez 0.38 & 1
Konate 0.37 & 1
League Cup Darwin ranked no1 for tackles with 4 & had 0 xg.
Only 90 minute opportunity this season for him.
Jota 0.85 & 2
Jones 0.57 & 0
Gakpo 0.51 & 2
MacA 0.42 & 0
Salah 0.11 & 1
Tsimi 0.9 & 0
In CL
MacA 0.96 & 1
Sobozla 0.87 & 1
Jota 0.85 & 0
Salah 0.68 & 1
Konate 0.63 & 1
VVD 0.55 & 1
Núñez 0.26
Tsimi 0.21
Gakpo 0.11
At CF this Season All Comps
Núñez 1 goal & 1 assist 307 minutes
0.64 Xg
Jota 1 goal & 2 assists in 445 minutes
2.89 Xg
Jota played 59 minutes v west ham in the 10 role & scored 2.
Why have you focused on my throwaway comment regards the language, i never said his inability to speak the language was the problem … i simply said he cannot use that as an excuse…
Bobby and Mane were World Class for LFC and as a result tbf they were not deserving of any criticism, if as you say their English was poor who cares, their football prowess for LFC was excellent… they passed every test.
Naby Keita and Nunez tenures however are fair game for critique as they have been and are nowhere near World class…
The stats you lay out for Nunez are good, but stats can be misleading ie scoring 7 goals in one game is not the same as scoring 7 match winning goals in 7 different games, especially if they are against your nearest rivals…or scoring 7 goals in games that we have technically already secured victories….they look good on your stats but have little or no real impact other than goal difference…and unfortunately for Nunez because he misses so many bread and butter important chances he constantly fails the eye test, scoring the odd great goal now and again may be good enough for some clubs, but its certainly not good enough for a team striving to win the Premiership or the CL…
One of the main reasons our challenge fell of the cliff last season on all fronts, apart from our Carabao Cup success. Was the abject failure of our leading strikers, Nunez especially but Salah was also culpable, to score match winning goals, despite the team creating a healthy number of good and gilt edged chances chances, in those costly defeats and draws in both the Cup matches and the League.
I think I read somewhere that Nunez failed to score in his last 13 matches of that season…Salah’s numbers in those games was only slightly better too. Lets not forget the margins involved between success and failure in Cup and League competition is so fine, this failure to score at such a critical point of the season is simply not good enough.
Unfortunately, against Bologna Nunez again looked the same as the back end of last season, completely lost and ineffective…
If you think he will come good, fair doos, I am happy to stand corrected if he does, but unfortunately I am not of the same opinion and I think he will be gone sooner rather than later.
Fingers crossed your are right and I am wrong…
I've read Arne has said he needs to change the system to get goals out of Darwin.
So what line up would suit him ? If he's finding it had to get goals with Luis and Mo either side of him in a front 3 then what would suit ? As I'd of thought that was perfect for a number 9.
Not sure why you're concerned about my comment on yours about his fluency. I was replying to what you said.
I compared Watkins, Halaand & Núñez last year. When I compared them second half of the season, it was clear Watkins was having the best season.
Halaand & Nunez were quite comparable on Goals & Assists per minute, and big chances missed. Halaand scoring more heavily with Núñez assisting more.
Núñez got about 80% of Halaands Goals&Assists per minute, in a side where Salah is the main man on Xg and has been for years..
It seems few ever doubt the missed chances stats on Nunez, nor did I, but then you're offering up hypothetical as to why a stats record should be questioned. Off the top of my head, I don't recall him scoring 7 in one game v some nomarks.
I think Fowler scored more hat tricks than Darwin, that might make Fowlers record less impressive under that viewpoint.
The stats for Darwin this year are quite simple in what they show. He's not had much Xg compared with others.
Halaands XG & goals & minutes
PL 5.89 & 10 & 540
CL 2.08 & 1 & 150
C.S. 0 & 0 & 90
7.97xG & 11 goals in 781 minutes
Nunez last 13 games last year.
He scored v Sheffield Untied and assisted v United in the league. There were only 10 games after the Sheffield United one including the bumming by Atalanta. Playing 384 minutes at a quick count averaging 38.4 minutes a game.
Against bologna he wasn't great at all, or even good.
But what standard have you in mind for coming good?
For me the other night he had one offside where I said blame the passer, I didn't see it back, so could be wrong on that one but it happens a fair bit.
I'd bring in a 5k fine if you pass to Darwin when he's offside, and a £200 fine for Darwin being offside. Play the ball earlier/faster or go elsewhere.
Well that’s not really what he said. A journo asked him in his presser, whether Nunez would have to adapt his gam or would the team have to adapt to help Darwin and he said “both”.
He went on to say apart from the offside goal Nunez scored we didn’t get him the ball in good enough positions to score.
Mo didn’t help him on that front on Wednesday night. Really should have sent him away on 2 occasions - hit the defender both times with rushed passes
Is it possible Mo is so scared Darwin runs offside if he doesn’t rush the pass?
Either way it was bloody frustrating.
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