Legendary striker Thierry Henry went in depth to analyze Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez’s struggling form after making a big money move to the Premier League this summer. Nunez has so far managed to bag an impressive 7 goals in 15 games in all competitions for the Reds, however is yet to hit the full throttle considering the excitement created by his arrival.
Liverpool splashed a club record fee of £85 million on the signing of Darwin Nunez this summer, after they needed to fill in the big void left by Sadio Mane who joined Bayern Munich. Nunez’s 34 goals in 41 games for Benfica last season was enough for the Reds to put their money where their mouth was. However, as many had expected to burst him on the scene in England, the Uruguayan is rather taking his time to settle in. And Henry, Arsenal’s all-time top scorer has a few tips to help the Liverpool ace to get going in the English top flight.
Henry feels Darwin Nunez is ‘rushing’ it at Liverpool
Darwin Nunez certainly has a hefty price tag to justify after he was the costliest buy this summer. Moreover, in England, where fans grow impatient in no time the 23-year-old had to prove his mettle sooner than later. On top of that, the Liverpool fans looked at him as the one who would continue Mane’s legacy at the club. But Jurgen Klopp knew the risk of throwing Nunez out there right from the first minute, and has handled his induction in England calmly.
The former Benfica man has been handed with only 8 starts across 14 games in all competitions by Klopp, and hasn’t been picked in the starting for some of the important games like Manchester City and the double against Napoli in the Champions League. To make things worse, the forward was served with a three-match ban for his red card against Crystal Palace earlier this season. Thierry Henry feels Nunez is now trying to ‘overdo’ it at Anfield in an attempt to quickly impress the fans. The former Arsenal striker told CBS:
“I think he needs confidence, and the confidence that I’m talking about is when you are at a club and feel like you’re going to play week in and week out, you’re a bit more cold in front of goal. Because he wants to please so much and do so much and he wants to wow the Liverpool fans, sometimes he rushes it. He gets the ball and he rushes it instead of controlling, going back on his right foot and finishing clean.
“I went through that. When you arrive as a big signing and just overdo it at times. Coming in after Sadio Mane, that’s not easy to do and you just overdo it instead of being calm, cool and finishing. He’s the type of guy where when he gets one then things will come. I don’t think he’s a finisher like Robbie Fowler, not a lot of people are finishers like Robbie Fowler in all fairness, but he has goals in him.
“He’s a bit more of a handful. Sometimes he will rush a bit like Alexis Sanchez or a young Luis Suarez when you felt like things were bounding off of him and stuff like that but when you start to master what you’re good at, then you can control it better. And I think that will happen to him. I think he can do that.”
Darwin Nunez still has a long debut season to go at Liverpool, and he is slowly and steadily arriving at the center stage. With Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota out injured for next four months, the Liverpool No.27 is going to get plenty of opportunities to show his worth. Klopp too has time and time again urged the Reds’ fans to give their record acquisition time fully adapt to the English football and insisted once he gets the ball rolling, there will be no stopping him.