Topic: Darwin Núñez (Darwin Gabriel Núñez Ribeiro)

[Kundale]

From what I've seen of Nunez so far, some of his touches on the ball and his close control has been...
not great, in addition to the header for the Dias handball penalty incident which was actually going well wide, the lucky flick goal & the accidental assist for Salah was due to a poor touch also.

Defenders are not gonna know where the ball's gonna go. Keep them guessing. 

[thaddeus]

Ryan Giggs appears to have been able to.

[ScouserAtHeart]

Defenders are not gonna know where the ball's gonna go. Keep them guessing. 

Exactly. If he himself doesn't know what's gonna happen, the opposition sure won't.

[afc tukrish]

Defenders are not gonna know where the ball's gonna go. Keep them guessing. 

This was Gerd Müller's modus operandi...

[plura]

He is an incredibly scruffy player but Mane had his moments where his touch deserted him. But he occupies defences and is a threat.

Indeed. Mane could mix some incredible touches and volley goals with awful touches. Firmino can do the same, or more often at least make an awful pass and then some outstanding quality control and dribbling.
Núnez will improve his first touch. But even without those improvements he'll be a handful for any team and score 20+ goals this season.

[Dave McCoy]

He had 4 shots and 6 completed passes in 40 minutes. I don't think his touch is the biggest concern. More can he adapt to a more possession game as invariably most games will be with us in control, at least you would hope. On the flip side if every 3rd touch of his results in a shot then he should be banging in the goals at such a rate that nobody would care about any other facet of his game.

[Samie]

Recorded the fastest top speed by any player in the league last week.   

[thaddeus]

Recorded the fastest top speed by any player in the league last week.   

I struggled for context so had a Google search and apparently Usain Bolt's "average ground speed was 37.58km/h whilst reaching a top speed of 44.72km/h" when he set the 100m world record.  Not bad Darwin, not bad!

[Darren G]

Recorded the fastest top speed by any player in the league last week.   

 Not surprising. He was recorded faster than Salah, Walker, Sane and Mbappe in the Champions League last season, clocking pretty much the exact same figure (36.5)

[Keita Success]

Bit torn on Nunez at the moment - think he might be best off the bench for now while he gets up to speed.

Fantastically odd start for him. Won a pen with a header going well wide, scored a good header against City, got a lucky goal against Fulham, and a lucky assist. But if he keep up that form for the rest of the season, we'll be alright.

[Caston]

Bit torn on Nunez at the moment - think he might be best off the bench for now while he gets up to speed.

Fantastically odd start for him. Won a pen with a header going well wide, scored a good header against City, got a lucky goal against Fulham, and a lucky assist. But if he keep up that form for the rest of the season, we'll be alright.

We were rubbish against Fulham until he came on and things finally started happening.

We all love Bobby but he shouldn't be starting ahead of him, especially against the 'dross' of the league. You can make the case of starting Bobby against top 6 or whatever, but Darwin should be starting from now on.

[JP!]

For a striker, to me, luck is the byproduct of making the right runs and getting in the right places. He's doing that, and it's going well.

Bit bewildered by the 'lucky flick goal' comments as well.

[thaddeus]

For a striker, to me, luck is the byproduct of making the right runs and getting in the right places. He's doing that, and it's going well.

Bit bewildered by the 'lucky flick goal' comments as well.

I fully agree with your first comment.  Somebody else referenced him reminding him of Fillipo Inzaghi in that respect.  Any great goalscorer will also have a sizable collection of terrible misses and lucky goals.  Hopefully Nunez will keep doing all those good things when he inevitably has a dry run at some point.

The 'lucky flick goal' was just that though, very lucky.  He completely missed the ball, the Fulham defender deflected it back onto him and it looped in.  The two of them couldn't repeat that if they tried 100 times.  I'm sure our coaches will have pointed out to him that for that goal and his earlier similar miss that he'd be better off opening his body up and using his left foot (similar to the German goal in the Women's Euro's final).  Being a #9 he should tell those coaches where to shove their advice 

[tubby]

Bit bewildered by the 'lucky flick goal' comments as well.

He missed the ball and it bounced off the defender back onto his foot, definitely some luck involved there.

But he's a real threat, always in the box, always causing havoc.  He'll get quite a few scrappy and lucky goals, and that works for me.

[killer-heels]

Funny though because I remember a striker discussion a few years ago as to whether we needed one when Firmino's numbers started to drop. The discussion was at the time that it would hinder this Liverpool side because Mane and Salah were our strikers and we needed someone to bring them into play.

It looks like with Diaz being less potent than Mane that we have decided that getting in a striker who gets goals but may not contribute much else is what we need.

[So… Howard Philips]

He missed the ball and it bounced off the defender back onto his foot, definitely some luck involved there.

But he's a real threat, always in the box, always causing havoc.  He'll get quite a few scrappy and lucky goals, and that works for me.

But he was in the right place at the right time and the ball ended up in the right place.

A true striker.

[Tobelius]

But he was in the right place at the right time and the ball ended up in the right place.

A true striker.

Yeah,Haalands contribution to their buildup was close to zero as i saw it thought Darwin did a bit more in his minutes for us.

His quick vertical sprints are deadly imo,forcing the oppo manager make a choice to lay deep in their box giving us control or push up and risk him getting a 1 on 1 with their keeper eventually.

[rocco]

Funny though because I remember a striker discussion a few years ago as to whether we needed one when Firmino's numbers started to drop. The discussion was at the time that it would hinder this Liverpool side because Mane and Salah were our strikers and we needed someone to bring them into play.

It looks like with Diaz being less potent than Mane that we have decided that getting in a striker who gets goals but may not contribute much else is what we need.

You would expected Nunez to contribute a lot more than just goals in time

[smurfinaus]

Havent been able to watch any of his gametime yet - but i am wondering how is his weaker foot?. Decent or good?.

[afc tukrish]

Havent been able to watch any of his gametime yet - but i am wondering how is his weaker foot?. Decent or good?.

Pacy, but not quick...

[Ghost Town]

Any gif of the 'Lucky flick goal'? I only watched it live and didn't notice anything amiss

[Son of Spion]

Any gif of the 'Lucky flick goal'? I only watched it live and didn't notice anything amiss

It's only 'lucky' because it was our player who scored it. If it was certain opposition players it would have been called genius.

Personally, I thought it was a quality instinctive finish.

[Ghost Town]

It's only 'lucky' because it was our player who scored it. If it was certain opposition players it would have been called genius.

Personally, I thought it was a quality instinctive finish.

Yeah that was my thinking, too. Esp as he'd tried something very like it shortly before.

But I'd like to watch it again to see the 'luck' part

[Son of Spion]

Yeah that was my thinking, too. Esp as he'd tried something very like it shortly before.

But I'd like to watch it again to see the 'luck' part

Hopefully Jason will be along shortly with video of it from multiple angles. 

[thaddeus]

Hopefully Jason will be along shortly with video of it from multiple angles. 

Nunez goal on 64 mins - https://clip.dubz.co/v/w26xfn & https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1555900884168712194

It's not ever-so-clear from those videos, the clearest being the last few seconds of the BT Sport Twitter video.  During the match itself though - about five minutes after the goal - BT put up a slow-mo that showed the Fulham defender kicking it onto Nunez after he'd initially missed it.

If anything that goal showed the best and worst of Nunez.  His movement is great, he's quick and strong, he's aggressive.  His technique is a bit iffy compared to our other forwards (the caveat being that we've been incredibly blessed in recent years - Nunez's technique is better than most of strikers we've had in the past decade!).  I think he might frustrate at times but he'll also score loads of goals so I'll certainly forgive him!

[SinceSixtyFive]

Recorded the fastest top speed by any player in the league last week.   

Nah mate thats Top Fart. Fart speed. I mean c'mon It says it quite clearly at the top there 

[Samie]

[So… Howard Philips]

Fucks sake.

Wear a helmet!

[Samie]

 

Should he even be on that during the season? Liverpool own his legs.

[Ghost Town]

You'll have a job getting a chain and padlock through that wheel, lid

[PEG2K]

Idiot

[duvva 💅]

Stick it in the net not on the defender Darwin

[El Lobo]

Well done Darwin, clever boy

[ToneLa]

Lol funny but come on mate don't do this again

[tubby]

Klopp didn't even look at him on his way off.

[d.arn]

He’s fucked us here.

[RedSamba]

 

[Ghost Town]

Facepalm for the face touch

[Trotterwatch]

Idiot, ffs

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

Idiot