Darwin Nunez continues to divide opinion on Football Twitter. But with another goal to his name for the season in Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Ajax to seal the Reds’ place in the Champions League knockout stages, it shows that he is improving.
The attacker is starting to show moments of brilliance for Liverpool but they are erased from people’s memories because he also fails to convert great chances. We have become so indoctrinated to seeing attacking players that sign for Liverpool have an instant impact. We saw it with Diogo Jota who turned out to be a revelation following his arrival from Wolverhampton Wanderers, and more recently when Luis Diaz joined from Porto in January. The Colombian was crucial to keeping the Reds in last year’s title race.
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Not every signing Liverpool make is going to have an instant effect on the pitch. Nunez was acquired for his talent, demonstrated in both Portugal and in Europe last year, as well as the years ahead of him in his career. He is clearly a player that Klopp views as part of the long-term future at Anfield, so doubters need to put their faith in both the manager and the player.
In his latest outing for Liverpool, Nunez was provided a great opportunity to finish off an exquisite move that involved Joe Gomez, Andrew Robertson and Roberto Firmino to make it 2-0 for Jurgen Klopp’s side. Firmino played the ball across to Nunez for an open goal but the Uruguayan cannoned his effort off the post.
Like it has been for most of the season, people were quick to slaughter Nunez online for the missed opportunity - like he is the only player in the world that has done it. You didn’t even need to open Twitter to find out what they were saying.
It wasn’t helped when it seemed as though BT Sport were enabling the criticism. During half-time, they were showing goals across all the Wednesday evening matches, you had Marcus Edwards netting against Tottenham Hotspur for Sporting CP, Sadio Mane scoring for Bayern Munich against Barcelona, and then you saw Nunez’s miss again.
Everyone will agree that Nunez should have scored that glorious chance but he more than made up for it in the second-half when he doubled his side’s lead after Mohamed Salah's clever opener. The 23-year-old positioned himself brilliantly to meet Robertson’s corner from the left and perfectly nod the ball into the far corner. It was an excellent header and hopefully the online trolls were quickly silenced.
That is now four goals for the forward in his last five matches in all competitions which would highlight that the South American is starting to find his feet with the Reds. Due to the unfortunate injury suffered by Luis Diaz against Arsenal the other week, Klopp is limited with his attacking options and it seems as more is being asked of Nunez in the run of games ahead of the World Cup.
Given his recent form, the former Benfica man is responding. With the game wrapped at 3-0 after Harvey Elliott finished off the hosts, Klopp took off Nunez so he could get his applause from the supporters, and so to rest him for another huge battle in the Premier League this weekend.
The Reds have three league fixtures to play before the break for the World Cup and Klopp knows that this side of the season needs to have a strong finish as Liverpool are currently five points off the pace in the race for the top four.
With each game and each goal, he is growing in confidence. With each week in training he is learning more about Liverpool and the way he is being asked to play under Klopp. The German coach is nurturing this young star to develop into one of Liverpool’s biggest assets and from the wonders he has worked since he took charge in 2015, you’d be a fool to doubt him.
Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution. Darwin Nunez is undergoing his own footballing evolution under Klopp at Liverpool, it may take time but both club and player are likely to get the end result they both crave. Just give him the time he needs.
