Darwin Nunez spoke candidly about the challenge of adapting to the Premier League in a His total includes the brilliant, match-winning double against Newcastle in August and while his inconsistency remains – his superbly-taken strike against West Ham came only minutes after missing a far easier chance – his progress is clear. “He has made massive steps in the last few weeks,” said Jurgen Klopp on Sunday.
conversation with Sky Sports in February. “It’s a very big change,” he said. “Here, the league is stronger, more competitive. I didn’t expect it to be so strong.”
The £85m Uruguayan was enduring a difficult first season in England but it had been a similar story after joining his previous club Benfica. “The first year went very badly for me. In the second, I exploded,” he said. “Here, I think the same thing is happening.”
Recent evidence suggests he was onto something.
Nunez finished his first season with 15 goals in all competitions. No disaster in a complicated campaign for Liverpool. But his game-changing strike against West Ham on Sunday was his fourth in only 336 minutes this time around. Something has clicked.
Finishing off chances
The most obvious change is the frequency with which Nunez is now dispatching his chances.
Last season, he scored only nine Premier League goals from 12.16 expected goals, giving him one of the worst negative differentials in the division. This time around, the underlying numbers look different.
Instead of underperforming on his expected goals, he is now overperforming, scoring three times from an xG of 2.64. It is a small sample size, of course, but the swing is encouraging.
The rushed attempt shortly before his goal against West Ham was a reminder that he remains erratic. Nunez has spurned six big chances in the Premier League this season, according to Opta.
But the kinks in his game are part of his charm to Liverpool fans – Nunez has long been an Anfield favorite – and the misses are easier to tolerate now that the goals are flowing too.
Factor in his two assists, in Liverpool’s games against Aston Villa and Europa League opponents LASK, and Nunez is averaging a goal involvement every 56 minutes in all competitions this season.
Klopp has been trying to hone his finishing ever since his arrival. “He has told me I have to be calm when it comes to finishing,” added Nunez back in February. “He wants me to take a second longer, because if I shoot with anger, or I rush it, it will always go badly.”
Conversely, his recent successes owe more to following his instincts.
The beauty of his double against Newcastle was the speed of execution, with both strikes taken early after running in behind. The same ruthlessness was evident in his improvised, first-time finish against West Ham in Sunday’s game at Anfield.
Klopp’s assistant, Pep Lijnders, described Nunez as “a pure intuition player” ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win over Leicester. The difference now is that, following a season to settle in, the 24-year-old has found a level of confidence and conviction to match.
“An intuition player like Darwin needs this kind of confidence,” added Lijnders.
Off-the-ball shifts
Nunez is showing a clinical edge but Klopp feels his off-the-ball improvement is even more significant.
“The defensive work he puts in is probably the main difference,” added the Liverpool boss on Sunday. “He always wanted (to do it) but it was less coordinated. Now that looks much better.”
Nunez’s work rate was never in doubt, even during his toughest spells last season, but Klopp’s point about its increased effectiveness can be seen in the numbers.
Tracking data shows a complete transformation in his pressing, with Nunez registering more than twice as many pressures and pressures in the final third per 90 minutes than last term. His average of 25.3 final-third pressures is the highest in the division.
As ever with Klopp’s Liverpool, much of the focus is on winning the ball back as quickly as possible after losing it. Collectively, Liverpool’s numbers for counter-pressures have risen from 88 to 92 per 90 minutes this season. Nunez has been a big part of the increase.
Klopp has highlighted the importance of Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones’ support from midfield. “We have found a way to do it around him,” he added of Nunez’s off-the-ball improvement. “Curtis and Dom help a lot in how flexible they are in that way.”
The pair started behind Nunez in the games against Aston Villa and West Ham and could be seen working in tandem behind the striker, positioning themselves nearby to close off passing lanes and sometimes even stepping out to press alongside him.
Nunez has combined effectively with Mohamed Salah too, the most notable example coming in the Villa game, when Nunez pressurized Emi Martinez, then jumped across to join Salah in closing down Pau Torres, forcing the corner from which Liverpool opened the scoring.
Nunez has shown the same willingness to track back.
Early in the win over West Ham, after Alexis Mac Allister had lost possession in the middle of the opposition half, and despite being 10 yards in front of his team-mate, Nunez sprinted all the way back to his own box, making up the ground in the space of a few seconds in order to dispossess Michail Antonio.
“He has this extreme mentality to run and fight and arrive in positions no-one thinks he can arrive,” added Lijnders earlier this week. “This guy has a fire inside him,” said team-mate Alisson Becker. The tackle on Antonio showed those qualities in action.
