Darwin Nunez

[ianlfc]

My point excectly,lads

[Nineteenx]

How many games has he started ?

I'm backing him not bashing him by the way, in case of any misinterpretation

I just think he needs time and work, I wouldn't have wanted to pay 80m for him in an ideal world, but sometimes the market is the market, I thought his physical attributes, game intelligence and movement could all be brilliant worked into our system without changing too much and adding plenty, solving a few problems and issues with how teams defended against us with one player given time.

I always believed he'd have to put a lot of work into his finishing and the coaches would have to work on the overall movement involving the forwards

[CCTV]

Thought this was worth a reply here as it pertains so much to Darwin Nunez.

Nunez simply isn't that type of player, that's not his game, for Benfica he did all the things I expected we'd use him to do as I have described When he did score headers, he was coming from a little deeper from the edge of the area, making runs between or across defenders, quite often having been involved in releasing a player from a deeper position central or wide and using which player received the ball (knowing his team mates) as the trigger for which type of run to make and making it at the point they received it/it was played to them when expecting a ball to be played first time
We've not tried using him how he plays, we've tried exactly what you suggest and so far that hasn't worked or looked like working, he's a right across the line type of forward who can get involved in play and build up and link play, not the big target man you seem to think he is it's his finishing he needs to work on most, everything else is ok when he does get to play as he likes to, links play well, makes some very nice and creative shorter passes, makes good runs into positions right across the line, then the finishing let's him down, that's THE main technical aspect he needs to work on

Just on the headers, his position and tactical flexibility. Nunez has scored a few headers from around the 6 yard line with little movement because he's tall and athletic. He seems a classic 9 and goalscorer, his career stats show his next best position lwf.

Centre-Forward
Played 125
53 goals & 20 assists
8,309 minutes

Left Winger
Played 9
11 goals & 2 assists
571 minutes

Second Striker
Played 8
6 goals
631 minutes

Right Winger
Played 3
1 assist
154 minutes

Last year under Jorge Jesus he played mostly CF, then LWF & second/support striker. Jesus played a lot of setups last season.
Back 3 systems a fair bit, also 433 & 442, 4312. Attacks consisting of front 3s, 2 strikers, a ten off a striker, a 10 behind two strikers 1-2
https://www.transfermarkt.com/sl-benfica/spielplan/verein/294/saison_id/2021/plus/1#CL

I've not looked at each individual game, so open to correction but there's so much variation of formation, and Nunez played a fair bit, it seems he's used to thriving in different setups

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It's been a mooted start due to the red card and the teams general form.

But again, how can you bench Nunez, Bobby, Jota or Carvalho on form, for Elliot or Arthur v Brighton ?
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And more generally with a stack of senior attackers who understand ze press und counterpress... why not play more of them off, in and around him

Our main rivals in recent years city play routinely with 4 or even 5 attackers in their 11. A midfield 3 of Rodri 6, Silva & KdB capable of playing in attack.
Can Thiago or Hendo play lwf or rwf, play 9 ? No.

For all the talk of the midfield supporting attack in other ways....
In Klopps first FULL season both Gini & Lallana chipped in with 15 goals or assists playing in a midfield 3 mainly.
Gini might have had 17 and Lallana 15.
Coutinho & Shaqiri played in it.
Keita & Ox bought to add goals or assists to it.

The maddest thing, is continuing to play 433 when a midfield 3 is excluding 2 of our top 5 attackers.
Generally forumites posit we have 3 midfield equivalents.
You seem to disagree with Fabs inclusion.

Playing to our strengths we should utilise an abundance of attackers as with Coutinho, Mane, Salah & Bobby pre-Virgil arriving.

We have 5 in Diaz, Bobby, Nunez, Salah, Jota presently
Reducing the number of starts for our midfield 3 to 2

On paper we are wasting our squads strengths in attack and magnifying it's midfield problems

[jozza800]

One thing that should be taken into consideration is that he's come from the Portuguese league.

It's going to be very different for him.

Not everyone immediately adapts.

[Kev0909]

One thing that should be taken into consideration is that he's come from the Portuguese league.

It's going to be very different for him.

Not everyone immediately adapts.

In that case why not just buy Toney?

Normally go abroad because it's cheaper, not in this case.

[Steveo]

One thing that should be taken into consideration is that he's come from the Portuguese league.

It's going to be very different for him.

Not everyone immediately adapts.

This is absolutely true. Plus he hasn’t had an easy start either. Team totally knackered and deflated after so many games last term and coming so close to all 4! Losing a crucial component of the attack in Mané. The massive fee for such a youngster…These things mean he has had it doubly tough.

I haven’t been overly impressed with his technique so far to be honest - but the lad hasn’t had a chance yet

[Steveo]

In that case why not just buy Toney?

Normally go abroad because it's cheaper, not in this case.

Could have gone for Toney too imo. We lost Mané - Minimino and Origi. The last 2 not instrumental in league form but there are no domestic cups minus them

[ianlfc]

One thing that should be taken into consideration is that he's come from the Portuguese league.

It's going to be very different for him.

Not everyone immediately adapts.

He'll come good, I've seen enough when he played against us plus his cameo during the Charity Shield.
It's just the way of the world unfortunately. Haaland was a flop and Nunez was the bee knees after the charity Shield just goes to show what can happen within a couple of months !!

[Insidious]

https://twitter.com/BRGoals/status/1573348793206317057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1573348793206317057%7Ctwgr% 5E9b0477ec8f7a07eebad757e8061a4890e196f48e%7Ctwcon %5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-33814236944047336621.ampproject.net%2F220907215400 0%2Fframe.html

Hope this links - decent effort that.

[Steveo]

Yep not bad - in a lot of room to be fair, but a decent strike indeed.