Liverpool legend Jan Molby has placed his confidence in Darwin Nunez to lead the line, believing that the striker knows his quality and plays to those strengths.
Arriving at Anfield for an initial £64m at the start of a difficult campaign for all concerned, the Uruguayan would go on to score 15 goals and record four assists in 42 appearances. The glaring issues have since been addressed in the transfer market and now with the Reds back fit and firing, Nunez has clearly been a key beneficiary. Having played only 14 times – half of which were starts – he has bagged seven goals and five assists already.
His latest strike came against Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, and epitomised both sides of the striker. At first he misjudged his control of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pass forwards, then picked up the pieces to whip a shot perfectly over the goalkeeper and under the crossbar.
Analysing the performance on the latest episode of his Anfield Index Podcast, Reds legend Molby accepts the 24-year-old for all he is. “He’s quite prepared to say some of the things he does – like the heavy touch in the [Bournemouth] game – ‘that’s how I play football, and in the end I always get there’,” the Dane explained.
“If you ask me ‘is there more to come?’ I don’t know. I don’t know if there is more to come because what you’re saying is you’re hoping, and I think we’ve seen all that. In glimpses he’s shown the levels you would like him to get to but I think he’s there already.
“He could end the season with 25-30 goal involvements and there would still be people going ‘I don’t know, is he actually any good or not?’ And I think he will say ‘I don’t care what people think, I will always end up where I want to be’, which is scoring and creating goals.”
