Darwin Nunez

[ianlfc]

I was surprised he was put out left and Mo put up the middle after Gakpo came off. He never got at White once which was a shame .

[teesred]

I was surprised he was put out left and Mo put up the middle after Gakpo came off. He never got at White once which was a shame .

Ben White looks like a character from Benidorm.

[justme]

seemed to me Gravenberch played up the middle at times when he came on..
Football is not easy, which every positions you change around. depends on how the ball gets to the players up front.. Arsenal got most of the ball in the last 20 minutes. so who ever was up front for us would have struggled to get into the game.
so forced to be a little deeper.. When Darwin came on. there was several players around on the wide left.. dunno who else would have made a difference over there. we miss Jota. but im not convinced he;d be good in that position..

Could have maybe played Jones over there..hes done it in the past. but he'd played all the game midweek so needed to come off for a rest. I read in the match day thread why didnt Jones stay on. Thats a call the manager has to make. He stayed on and got a hamstring strain. hes out for 4/6 weeks.. not easy choices to be made

[miller0863]

If Jones can stay fit and try to affect the game when he plays and not go back to five yard balls backwards, he could make the left mid place his own, it’s up to him.

[ianlfc]

Great to see the big man get his goal plus one of his better all round performances.
Hopefully he'll kick on from this .

[Insidious]

Great to see the big man get his goal plus one of his better all round performances.
Hopefully he'll kick on from this .

Really tidy finish yesterday.

A good time for him to score with AFCON around the corner - excellent timing for the return of Jota as well in that regard.

[CCTV]

Only Saka (11) at arsenal has more PL goal contributions than Darwin (10)

Saka has played 523 more minutes than Darwin whose played 1,055 minutes in the PL.

[CCTV]

Solanke v Núñez (and layer Salah)

Solanke started every one of their 18 game bar the season opener, playing nearly every minute in the PL - 1,605 minutes
(At 19 now after yesterday's game v Spurs with 0 goal contributions for Soalnke - generosity of the new year not to update)

13 Goal contributions
12 goals from 9.9 Xg
1 assist from 0.9 Xa
Goal or Assist per 123.5 minutes
Expected Goal contributions 10.9*

Núñez started 11 of our 19 PL games,
Playing 1,048 minutes

12 Goal contributions
5 goals from 7.1 Xg
7 assists from 1.6 Xa
Goal or Assist per 87.4 minutes
Expected Goal contributions 8.7


Solanke is blitzing Nunez on Xg. Darwin under delivering -2.1 as much as Solanke +2.1 over performing on Xg

Darwin obviously blitzing Xa.

Combined - goal contributions verses Xg&a

Darwin 3.3 outperforms to Solanke's 2.1

Solanke has got 12 goals, arguably Darwin should have at least 7. Darwin has missed some 'sitters' including a Goal that would have been iconic but he hit the post, iirc Gakpo scored to spare his blushes.
More goals needed from Darwin. More XA to be provided for him also

Darwins is an Assist machine and
is often blamed for being offside by people. Rarely is the focus on the passes to him.

Salah in comparison with both.


Salah started all 19 of our 19 PL games,
Playing 1,650 minutes

19 Goal contributions
12 goals from 11.1 Xg
7 assists from 4.6 Xa
Goal or Assist per 86.8 minutes
Expected Goal contributions 15.7

Salah like Solanke better finishing than Darwin. Not as clinical as Solanke.

Like Darwin, Mo blitzs Solanke on assists.

Over performed XG+Xa

Salah & Darwin +3.3
Solanke +2.1

[justme]

Darwin to score this evening. there i said it!

[BOBPAISLEYFAN]

Both Nunez and Minamino played great games against us in the Champions League and these performances seemed to convince / influence the powers that be, that they both merited a position @ LFC…

Minamino was too lightweight and never really established himself in the starting 11, unfortunately whilst Nunez seems to possess all the attributes to succeed at LFC, the one attribute he does sadly lack is the ice cold skills of a clinical finisher.

Given the Captain Chaos element of his style, he will always score goals and create chances, but imho not enough and certainly not in the key moments of games when they are needed most. These goals can be the difference between winning titles and Cups and not….