today did it for me. he's got a great attitude and god knows he works like hell but he should have scored at least 1 today and maybe even 2. very disappointing. Hope Jota is back soon but doesn't seem like it at all. We'd be better leaving Diaz central and Cody on LW right now.
This was a real banana skin game imo, coming right after a really intense week. In retrospect a draw is a good result, frustrating because we came back twice from behind to lead before conceding at the end. I for one will not say a bad word about Kell; if Nunez finishes even one of his chances we wouldn't have been in this position in the first place and Kell has saved our bacon countless times. Oh and how about paying Salah? Just a thought.
Naaaw. That’s unfair. Alisson trying to play keep ball with Vardy nipping at his heels, stealing the ball and scoring into an empty net comes to mind. As does Neuer getting caught in no-man’s land against Mane in Munich. Keepers have brain farts by times, the problem is that when they do, those mistakes are so much more visible and costly than say Salah misplacing a pass.
Kell had a pretty good save earlier in the game when Joe Gomez mis-kicked on his back pass...so even in this game, it evens out...yeah - he should have caught that cross, or punched it out - but like Samark says in the post above, when a 'keeper makes even a small mistake, it often shows much larger/costly...
Fair, it’s probably a combination of post game annoyance along with how easy of a play it should have been. Hate giving back two points of cushion so cheaply
I hate the knee-jerk reactions of complacency, thought we won the league already etc. So dumb. How about - we are frikken tired, with big injuries, in an away game, playing 4th game in 10 days including Real and Cheats back to back? Also how about remembering Saudi was a CL team last year and have weapons and will be a tough away game for most teams.
We were tired physically and mentally after a tough week, playing in a difficult place. They have a high intensity press and we were slow all around. I’m frustrated and disappointed at how we conceded, but I give it a pass. Except Darwin. I’ve been done with him for awhile. Imagine if we had Isak instead. I’d very much consider selling on I’m sad to say. Robbo needs a rest.
First half was horrendous. At end of half was not even sure there was a way to scrape out a draw. But all self inflicted. Quansah was a fish out of water at RB. He looked it against ManC but the situation was different - all we had to do was defend at that stage. But as a starting RB he was horrible and didn't seem to have any idea what to do. It upset the whole balance of the team. But I don't hold that against Quansah (he is a good CB), but we would have been much better balanced with Gomez at RB and Quansah at RCB. That one is on Slot. So I put the two points dropped on Slot.
The thing that I had liked about Nunez' season so far is how he has not become the main character in every single match. He was just another player, doing a job for the team, and the game was never centered around him. Today reminded us of what it was like last season, where his performance just does everyone's head in. It all started with the missed sitter from Gakpo's header. I've watched the replay multiple times and still don't know how it happened. He just loses his concentration at the most important moments. There is no other way to explain some of the chances he misses. It's hard to see how it changes if he is still doing it in his third season. All strikers miss chances. But I think the problem with Nunez is the fact he is so all action, and such a huge presence in the game, means that these misses are even more damaging. While he is capable of ruining a game for the opposition, he is equally capable of ruining a game for Liverpool. After that miss, he couldn't do a single thing right. Then he has the other one where he completely shanks the shot from close range. Again, just doesn't concentrate at the key moment. With all that said, today we overcame the Darwin problem. Mo Salah won the game for Liverpool, only to see us give it back. Gutting, but we take our 7 point lead to Goodison and move on. The team showed real fight today coming from behind twice to take the lead. We even had our chances to make it 4-3 after the equalizer. It's not the worst point in the world, and I'm feeling relatively confident going into Saturday.
Composure and football intelligence IMO. If Darwin converted more of his chances and made better football decisions in transition, we wouldn’t need Mo to carry this load and would protect us if/once he leaves. Need Jota back or keep Diaz in that role.
Plus you're not getting 70M for him. No reason to sell. He's easily still a net-positive. But yeah, pretty tough match for the pro-Nunez crowd today.
Slot made no signings last summer as he wanted time to properly review the guys currently at the club. Once the seasons over he can decide what areas he can improve on . I would think Darwin will be one of those . When Jota is fit Darwin has been the second choice and of course Jota himself struggles to stay fit so I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see us go for a new striker this summer.
That’s not a good reason to hang into him, though, is it? He doesn’t just fit, try as he can and does. On the main point, there are strikers there— the job of the scouting team is to find them.
Nunez is in the 98th percentile vs all other forwards in top leagues in Europe in non-penalty xG & xA per90. He has a goal or assist every 119 minutes he's on the pitch, in all competitions. That's over almost 2.5 years. And he's 25 years old. He could EASILY improve from here. He's 4 months into his spell under a new manager as a guy just now in his mid 20s; he's not some proven pro like Jota, or guileful legend cranking out absolute top-tier production in a contract year like Mo. But he's also, again, 25. It makes some sense to point fingers in aftermath of this result. And I get it, we're just not going to do it to Kelleher, because he's earned the right to make ONE mistake -- even if it is an absolutely colossal one that directly cost the side 2 points. And Nunez can deserve blame here, and he can be wasteful and can have issues with consistency and finishing and everything else... I can agree up and down with all that and still say selling him is a terrible idea, because it is.
Maybe he can improve and I’ll let Slot and team work on that. But don’t keep him simply because if s supposed dearth of number 9s. I do agree, though, that knee-jerk is not constructive and helps nobody.
FWIW, I think Nunez is a much better player under Slot than Klopp. He’s less of a manic Lone Ranger popping shots off from fantastic angles while being in an offside position, often lucky to keep the ball in a low-earth orbit. He now links up better with his teammates, especially the other front 2 and is as likely to pass as shoot. Granted, he’s still mercurial, still wanders offside too much, and god forbid he actually has to think about placing a shot rather than blasting at 487mph. But as he has shown so much improvement under Slot, maybe there is a top notch player underneath after all. Worth persevering until at least season’s end.
just to state the obvious for a moment .... there's a basic problem with Nunez. when he has a chance to score, too many times (not always of course) he gets over-excited and finds a way to fluff it. compare last night to last season's game at St James: - last season he came on late and when he got those 2 chances he kept his composure and produced 2 superb goals. (we've seen him do it recently as well - his finish vs Villa a few weeks back was another beauty, after he took a half-second to compose himself.) - last night he lost his composure on 2 chances and effed them up. it seems like he starts to celebrate in his head before he executes the strike. Darwin ffs find a way to cool your mind for that split second. but if you haven't been able to do that on any consistent basis at this point ......
I've been indifferent to Nunez for a while. He's really the same player he was 3 years ago. A lot of "moments" and "trying", and a boatload of head-scratching plays. we could still get 50m for him.