Darwin Nunez

[Insidious]

Useless again after coming on.

Certainly in a bad spell of form.

How much of that is confidence is hard to say. He is capable of tidy finishes, though I do feel when his confidence is on the floor that he reverts back to opting for power - but some of his goals for us and for Benfica show he is capable.

I feel his pressing, positioning, hold-up play have all improved (not all as much as I would like) while he has been here. The awful timing of the poor run of form is pretty unfortunate.

What does frustrate me a little with the current hyper-fixation on Darwin is the number of other problems throughout the side that need just as much (if not more) attention.

- Our defence still has the capacity to be somewhat porous and lacking in clean sheets, which puts further pressure on the forwards.

- Our midfield, whilst significantly improved, is still a bit a one-paced, which has an effect in defence and attack unless we become ridiculously adept at monopolising possession, closing spaces and making killer passes.

- Our side still lacks a bit of physicality in a couple of spots, mainly in midfield.

- Currently (thankfully not a "forever" problem) confidence is on the floor.

- Our front three still looks like 3 individuals rather than a cohesive triumvirate of chance-creation and goal-scoring. Indeed, we create more chances per game when Darwin plays if I recall, though I'd need to dig for data on that again.

- Our world-class talismanic forward Mo Salah is human, Quelle Surprise.

All of these things can absolutely be dealt with and addressed and the side can be very good, very quickly with the right work and a couple of transfers. However, almost all the attention is on Darwin (besides this Salah v Klopp debacle) because the media loves a "flop" story to drive clicks and opposition fans, coupled with some of our own, can drive that sort of narrative very quickly - often (when it comes to a small but loud percentages of all fanbases, including our own) due to supporters being more concerned about seeing memes that denegrate their club or its playing staff.

Anyway - hopefully next season (if he is still here) he can get off to a good start. Some things with him will never be perfect (his first touch, mainly) but he has so many tools to work with and I remain convinced that he can be very effective.

[Nineteenx]

He’s one of those players the manager & other players have to stay on top of

In a few games, he has delivered what many thought he was bought for, mostly from LFWD but in a few games this season from No9 he has

Finished when he should

Won the ball in front of defenders, held it up a laid it off

Done enough to stop the defender getting a good clearing header so we can pick up the loose ball

Picked the ball up wide & deep & spread play well to good affect

Come back smartly to link play when we otherwise couldn’t play out (1-1 v City)

Popped or right left & centre to good effect

Timed his runs well

He just seems the type of person that has to be kept grounded because otherwise he thinks he’s arrived & is the shit & then stops doing all the things you’ve worked so hard with him on & just hanging around quite static in the No9 position

I’d keep him & use him at LFWD & RFWD & at No9 in cup games I think he’d benefit from more instruction in what’s required from him in a role against each opposition, he’s not you’re thinking man’s footballer who can work shit out for himself

[Nineteenx]

Also has to be said not using him at LFWD v the bitters against Godfrey & playing Díaz there who struggles with CB employed at full back & their extra power & physicality instead of playing Díaz off their 2 CBs giving them no-one to mark wasn’t the smartest thinking in my view

[jozza800]

Also has to be said not using him at LFWD v the bitters against Godfrey & playing Díaz there who struggles with CB employed at full back & their extra power & physicality instead of playing Díaz off their 2 CBs giving them no-one to mark wasn’t the smartest thinking in my view

Except Diaz was one of the few players to come out of that game with any credit and Nunez ridiculously fired his one-on-one straight at the keeper...

[Steveo]

Agreed - as I mentioned on the day - anyone who was keenly talking about selling Diaz wasn’t watching the game v West Ham, or any of the recent games at all. He has been marked heavily due to his threat - and it’s been creating all sorts of space and chances for the other 3 - which they have squandered

[teesred]

Exactly. The one thing Diaz can never be accused of is not being involved. He's always busy,always involved and always working.
That's not something you can say about the other forward players this season. He does squander chances and his decision making is questionable but overall he's a very good player and he'd get in pretty much every other team in the league.

He should be retained but the issue we'll have is if Barca come knocking. His Dad sounds like he's angling for it and we may struggle to keep him if so.
It's okay saying sell him,him and him but it's only worthwhile if you're going to replicate or better that quality and that is very hard to do when you have already good players.

[Nineteenx]

Except Diaz was one of the few players to come out of that game with any credit and Nunez ridiculously fired his one-on-one straight at the keeper...

He should have done better, I think the keeper saves it still if he tried to go across him, I saw another angle of it later I hadn’t seen & it wasn’t as easy a chance as it looked, easier for a left footer, but a right footer across the keeper I think they save it nine times out of ten

It’s like the one against UTD everyone was going on and on about, there are replays that show that he didn’t miss an open goal as so many claimed but that just as he was about to hit it, the keeper & defender sliding across actually blocked him putting it in, so he tried to adjust to go across the keeper or put the ball back stick at the last split second & ended up doing neither

Similar but not as obvious through the shots we were shown to Elliott’s horrible miscue, he’s about to hit it left foot, just as he’s in the action of pulling the trigger, the defender blocks where he was putting it, tries to adjust at the last split second skews it horribly wide, same thing

Milan Baros used to run non stop & have dribbles, take too many touches & run down too many blind alleys without enough end product too so championing Diaz who has missed more big chances than anyone else in this current run of poor form is a nonsense to me, there are a few games this season, in this run, he should have won

All in all they need coaching, we’ve lost shape & any recognisable patterns of play, including in the collective movement of our forwards and I hope & trust Slot will address that because it’s a huge part of what’s gone wrong

[Nineteenx]

Look at it like this, Nunez was bought to replace Bobby he’s scoring more goals & getting more assists than Bobby

Diaz was bought to replace Mane, he’s scoring far fewer goals getting far fewer assists, not pressurising defences in the same way, not playing the right balls when they’re on as Manr so frequently did, not winning pens for Mo to convert, he’s a very poor replacement for Mane & we need much better

[Steveo]

We can look at things any way we like but to totally ignore how Bobby was used over how Nunez has been deployed is nuts…

Part of why Mané and Salah were scoring so many was because of all the graft Bobby was doing in deeper areas.

[Steveo]

Diaz has created similar space and his play has resulted in multiple opportunities from out wide - but crucially nobody wants to take the opportunities.