I think Nunez will stay, and hopefully with the tweaks made to the team (getting the midfield functioning for one) he and the other forwards will be more productive.
We have leaked chances all season. This ramps up the pressure on the attackers, and when it got to the business end that pressure was too much. We saw it most in the Palace game when desperation kicked in, and when that happens attackers miss chances they would normally score. We have had to play catch up in games throughout the season, you are just putting immense demands on the attackers to keep bailing us out. The Palace game in particular, the choice to start a goosed Endo less than 72 hours after he had been rinsed by Atalanta, Palace and their athletic midfielders were licking their lips at targeting him as they did earlier in the season. We inevitably lost the first half, and then when Endo was hooked during the break we then gave the players a half to salvage the game. Vs United at OT, we conceded six goals in two games against a pathetic outfit; the league game a hooked pass over the top by Casemiro into that gaping hole in midfield vacated by Endo who then doesn"t have the recovery pace to get back allowed United a free run in on goal from which they went ahead. Its cheap, constantly. We talked about the attackers in both games, but they'd have needed to have scored eight goals in two games at OT to have won them both. That's a ridiculous ask.
In the same way I wouldnt have criticised any of the defenders during the 22-23 season given that they had a season with no protection infront of them, I struggle to really go after any of the forwards in this season as they are playing in a dysfunctional side, chiefly a dysfunctional midfield (although somewhat better than the complete shitshow of the previous season), which means they are constantly up against it. They are not a cohesive attacking unit but that's more a managerial issue, its he who has to get that mix right. But their finishing, there are extenuating circumstances for why they have missed chances.
Get the midfield working again (6 brought in top priority), which allows the advanced 8s to have more freedom without the same restrictions in having to stay close to the 6 that they have had to do this season, that then gives the attackers a better platform to succeed, and without that constant need/pressure to bail out the team. When the team is working everyone is calmer, more composed, less desperate in their play, and composure for a forward is a necessity. Nunez has never been the most composed finisher (he may never be) but the demands this season to all the forwards have been off the scale. Going behind has been the norm, there is no security for them, so they go into games thinking we need two or three here which automatically makes their job alot harder.
I know we are without a quality 6, but had we started that Palace game with a functioning midfield, those forwards would not have snatched at the chances they did. We cannot keep asking them to go to the well and bail us out (as happened with the Rodgers season when we conceded 50), we need the team working again to then see the best of the forwards, Nunez included.
