I always say two seasons is all I give a player to adjust to a new country, team, manager and teammates. Darwin has maxed out. Do you see Slot keeping him?
I don't because I think we can still get 50m for him. counter argument is that he's just 25 and will keep learning and might just be entering into his prime. but I don't see anything that says he will be a prolific goal scorer. Again, people will say "goal involvements" and that's fine - but he was supposed to be be Haaland-lite at banging them in. He's a player that I hope I am wrong about because he seems like a great teammate and someone you want to do well.
I agree with all of that. It seems like everyone who's a Red is rooting for him, not just because it would be to our benefit, but also due to the fact that he seems like a hard worker, good teammate, and genuinely good person. Even Slot said that he waited longer than he should have to substitute him yesterday, hoping that the goal would come. Perhaps the pressure of his price tag, and trying to live up to the Liverpool standard has done a number on him. I'm to the point that selling him, as long as we can still get a big fee makes sense, but I have this little sense of dread that after he leaves he will somewhere, somehow live up to his potential and be "the one that got away". If we do sell him, I hope it's to someone outside of England.
Benefits of getting automatic qualification from this CL stage ... plus a "nightmare scenario" ... Less congestion A brilliant bonus of making the league phase's top eight is not having to play two extra matches packed into an already busy calendar. Placement straight into the round of 16 means avoiding the play-off round, which is two-legged, with matches contested on February 11/12 and 18/19. For Liverpool, already scheduled around those midweeks are a possible FA Cup fourth round tie (Feb 8), a Premier League home clash with Wolves (Feb 16) and most importantly the Premier League away visit to Manchester City (Feb 23). As Man City face the very real prospect of qualifying through the Champions League play-off round, they might come into that meeting with heavy legs compared to the Reds' rested players. Route to the final As has always been the case in the Champions League, better performance in the earlier rounds would grant an easier pathway to the final, at least on paper. In the inaugural campaign of this new European competition system, the league phase top-eight finish will guarantee that in the round of 16 Liverpool play a non-Premier League opponent that makes it through via the play-offs. With Aston Villa, Arsenal and Man City all currently taking up spots between ninth and 14th before tonight, this would further reduce the pool of teams UEFA could place them against. The draws for the knockout rounds will largely stay the same as they were conducted in the old format, so a route to the final should quickly become clear. Financial incentive Again, the better the performance in the earlier rounds means greater financial reward for the club. As per UEFA, qualification for the round of 16 will bag the Reds €11m (£9.27m), rather than the €1m (£842,669) guaranteed to those reaching the play-offs. Then there comes some almighty bonuses for making the most of the league phase. Firstly, victories in this stage are worth €2.1m (£1.77m) each, meaning the club have already won a total of €12.6m (£10.4m) and could end with €16.8m (£13.8m). What's more, there is a bonus ranking system in place that will see further prize money dished out depending on finishing places in the table. It starts with the 36th-placed team winning a single 'share', worth €275k (£226.7m), the 35th-placed team winning two shares and so on, right through to the first-placed team who would win 36 shares. With Liverpool on course to finish here, they could win another €9.9m (£8.1m). It would be this total at worst, as each match drawn in the league phase means more money will increase the value of the shares. Nightmare scenario For all the benefits, there is one possible situation to come from this that would threaten the good progress of Slot's men. Coming back to the point of less fixture congestion and those February midweek dates remaining open as a result of not playing in the play-offs, there is the small matter of the Merseyside derby to resolve. Storm Darragh saw that clash at Goodison Park postponed last Saturday lunchtime therefore it needs to be rescheduled. At the moment the next available midweek is on the week commencing January 6, however a possible Carabao Cup semi-final would take priority were the team to progress in that competition later this month. The rest of the first month of the year is packed full, so it can't be played then. That leaves different February midweek dates free, including that one between the Wolves and Man City fixtures. It would be far from ideal were Liverpool tasked with playing their Merseyside rivals at Goodison Park for the final time, under the lights, days before going to league title rivals Man City - a ground where they have not won since 2018.
I agree. I think there are a lot of teams that would still take a risk on him. His underlying numbers are still very promising. He is still a nightmare for centerbacks to go up against. If we were playing against him, I would certainly fear him. I think the problem with him at Liverpool is that we have such a small margin of error. We are trying to win the Premier League and the Champions League. Every time he has one of his infuriating games where he can’t do anything right, misses ridiculous sitters, and losses his confidence he could be costing us the points that are the difference in the title race. Or it could mean we are knocked out of Europe. He also doesn’t seem like an Arne Slot footballer. Slot wants players who are reliable on the ball, intelligent in their play, and can link up well with others. I’m sure there are plenty of managers that would love the chaos that Nunez is capable of causing, but I don’t think that is Slot. I still think we need to get behind him and he can play a role in helping us achieve our goals this season, but I think if Slot had his choice of an ideal centerforward he would look elsewhere
Same amount of league goals as Jota & Gakpo this season. Nunez is so much more than scoring goals. If Liverpool don't want that after seeing it up close I'm not sure why someone else should want it enough to value him at what he's plausibly worth.
Unfortunately Darwins total of 3 goals is in all competitions not just the league. As was discussed earlier he's under performing this season for Slot scoring something like one goal every six games. Despite those numbers the team has still been chugging along but ultimately Slot and the coaches will decide whether his return and general play is satisfactory or not. For me this season Darwin just isn't clicking up top which raises some concerns as to whether he's suited to Slot's football.
This role doesn’t appear to suit Darwin. It doesn’t play to his strengths. He’s busy without the ball and can be a one-man press at times. This saves the legs of others. But with the ball, there’s no hiding. He’s not secure enough in possession. His passing is erratic. He’s not able to retain possession or help Liverpool keep hold of the ball in the opposition half. And this is what is letting him down. Against Girona, he was replaced, having attempted eight passes and completing just 50%. He completed zero dribbles and struggled in duels, winning one of just four. Darwin is being shoehorned into a role now for the good of the team. At least on paper anyway. However, it doesn’t appear as though anyone is benefitting from it now. Liverpool are winning but they’re needing the brilliance of Salah. With Jota and Federico Chiesa returning to fitness, the No9 is likely going to find himself on the bench for the foreseeable. If he can’t turn it around, this might’ve been his last run in the first-team for Liverpool. Darwin Nunez: Why hasn't it worked for Liverpool forward under Arne Slot?
If we can play the selectivity game for Darwin we can play for Gakpo -- he too is not first choice when the team is fully healthy after all. 4 goals in league cup is great for him and all, but Cody only has 1 more goal in the most important competitions and he's played more minutes. Again, "goals" is no the reason to keep or write off a forward. It's not the 90s anymore. Darwin could have had a goal mid-week, easily. He could/should have scored against Newcastle. The production will come... but it's the skillset that's the reason to not sell.
Season #1 that was a really good argument (and I made it). Season #2, I was still hanging onto this argument. Now we are in season #3.
Season number 2 he was among the better players in Europe in terms of goals + assists per90... So we can set aside everything else he does better than most current Liverpool attackers, that production alone should take you most of the way to "don't sell this guy yet". We are less than 5 months into the new manager's system right now. And the first month Darwin played 10 minutes or something. For me he's just as likely to go somewhere else and blow up as he is go somewhere else and maintain these current low production levels.
There’s every chance he goes somewhere else and blows up, which is why I think we could still get a decent fee for him. I’m losing faith that it will happen at Liverpool. If he goes somewhere else and is great, I’m fine with that, as long as we get a good player to replace him who is more suited to how we want to play.
I mean we got 30m from CP for Benteke who we paid about 32m for from Villa. Someone will look at Darwin, and his attributes, and say "we can build him better"
But he could quite easily have say 2 goals in his previous 2 matches and then there would probably be almost no argument, right? So because he's getting in good positions and doing good off-ball work I find the idea that this is about suitability to "a system" in a general way to be pretty silly... more like, he struggles with final ball consistency but over time delivers. Pretty simple. And we of all people should know the direct contributions will come, because how else did he get to 119 minutes per goal involvement for over 2 years? It's not about "Klopp's system", as even with his struggles this season he's got a comparable npxG+xA to both Diaz & Gakpo and memes aside he's more often putting his shots on target than either of them. His npxG per90 is the same as Mo's.
When he first came on the scene he hit some fantastic shots from great angles. All would have been great goals but the woodwork got in the way. I felt he would have adjusted and come right but he just seemed to have lost that confidence. Those shots, those attempts don’t come anymore. By keeping away from hitting the posts he’s hitting the keeper. Funny old game isn’t it. Like when Mo is having a “bad” game, missing shots, or PKs and we’re moaning about him. He nearly always manages to squeeze one in. Darwin on the other hand ….
I'm very much still in Darwin's corner. He had 31 G+A last season in a system designed to get shots for the striker. This season we've seen an overall decrease in shot production for the team and the shots we are getting are more likely to go to the wingers, hence the uptick in production from Diaz and Gakpo. Nunez was scoring almost a goal a game for Benfica, mostly playing off the left, so while its unlikely we'll see much of it unless there are injuries, I'd be interested to see what he could do out wide in Slot's system. All in all though, the amount of consternation over what is in reality our 5th choice forward does continue to baffle. To have such problems when sitting top of all the leagues.
I think good teams are always looking at areas in which they can improve so I think it's probably as simple as that. Just read this quote from This is Anfield. Liverpool are expected to speed up negotiations as Manchester United are also interested in signing the young striker.” The 23-year-old is said to be “the profile Arne Slot is looking for,” as a “nine-and-a-half” who can be “a goalscorer who also goes down the pitch to help with the build-up.”
Ithink we need to trust the new coaching team on this one — they see things we don’t. I’m as Remember when Rodgers couldn’t get a tune out of Firmino? Look what a phenomenal player he became for us. Slot and his merry men have earned huge respect by not coming in ball blazing guns, thundering hooves and blood making wholesale changes.