Darwin Núñez scored 15 times for Liverpool in his debut season. Already this year, he has netted seven times and laid on another five goals for his teammates. The idea that he is some sort of watered-down version of Andy Carroll, to politely quote a frequent taunt from opposition fans, is simply not true.
Jürgen Klopp said earlier this season that Núñez’s English has come on a long way and the striker has clearly benefited from being coached over the last 18 months or so. His all-round game now is completely different from when he arrived and his driving run against Everton that led to Mohamed Salah’s late strike, for example, showed that he has a new level of composure. Núñez’s decision-making has come on leaps and bounds and he has noticeably been more involved deeper on the pitch lately, proving adept at winning the ball back and becoming more active in the build-up. But there is one obvious thing still missing from his game.
Against Luton, of course, Núñez missed chance after chance. When he hit the crossbar in the first half, it just needed a more deft touch rather than a smash. He only needed to get a little bit less on the shot and it would have gone in.
Then in the second half, his most glaring opportunity was from Salah’s skewed header. While he might not have expected to receive the ball, from inside the six-yard box, it simply had to go in. Klopp insisted post-match that Liverpool’s issue was not creating enough chances rather than not converting them, but that felt more like a statement to deflect from Núñez’s difficult afternoon in front of goal than an actual assessment. Liverpool had six or seven big chances but failed to capitalize until Luis Díaz rose and headed home.
This is not the first time that Núñez has missed a pretty much open goal recently, either. Against Toulouse, he lay sprawled on the turf in front of The Kop after going around the goalkeeper and hitting the post. He couldn’t watch as Ryan Gravenberch netted. But if only he scored the easy ones as well as the shots from all angles, Liverpool would have a near-complete forward.
The narrative around Núñez is not entirely fair. He only has one fewer Premier League goal this season than Ollie Watkins, who is being talked about as having one of the best individual seasons across the division. But the big misses are not helping Núñez’s case — and he could easily have reached double figures for goals in all competitions by now. The good news is that Núñez is getting into good positions to miss the chances, which is always a positive sign. Additionally, the 24-year-old is scoring the hard ones and missing the easy ones. It would be logical to think that converting the easy chances as well as the hard ones should be easier to rectify than if it were the other way around. If he has another afternoon in terms of finding positions on the pitch like against Luton, only a small change in how he plays would have led to a hat-trick.
Núñez is still taking more shots than anyone else (six in half an hour or so against Luton) and that is usually a telling sign. Erling Haaland has missed even more big chances than the Uruguayan in the Premier League — but, crucially, has also scored seven more.
There can be no excuses for missing from a couple of meters outside of the goal, though, when Liverpool would almost certainly have had two more points on the board had that effort been scored. The pattern of missing the clear-cut chances needs to change, but when it does, Liverpool will have one of the best forwards around. The fact it is only scoring the easy ones that Núñez needs to perfect should be a positive; now it is over to the striker to take the next step
