Darwin Nunez’s Struggles Continue as He Misses More Chances Against Leicester City

02/01/23 1491

When Darwin Nunez was signed by Liverpool in the summer, comparisons were made with the arrival of Erling Haaland at Manchester City.

Which player would come out on top in the goal scoring charts and which man would lead his team to success in the Premier League and Champions League?

Unfortunately for Nunez, the comparisons have quickly ended as there is one player far above the other in terms of scoring goals. Ahead of Manchester City’s fixtures at home against Everton in the Premier League, Haaland has 20 goals to his name.

The Norwegian international become the fastest player to reach 20 goals in a Premier League season when he scored 2 goals for Manchester City in their 3-1 victory at Leeds United.

Following Liverpool’s match at home against Leicester City, Nunez has 5 goals in the Premier League, leaving him behind the likes of Ivan Toney, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Miguel Almiron, Rodrigo, Phil Foden, James Maddison, Leandro Trossard, Harvey Barnes, Callum Wilson, Wilfried Zaha, Martin Odegaard, and Gabriel Martinelli.

It is fair to say, for the £64 million initial payment and with add-ons potentially taking the fee to £85 million, the Uruguayan international has been performing well below expectations in-front of goal.

Nunez has scored 5 goals in the Premier League this season. There is a lot of talk regarding his pace and how he causes disruption in the opposition defence but that is not his job.

He was brought into the club to score goals, there is no getting away from that and his performances have been well below par in that department. Two of Nunez’s 5 goals came in the same match, meaning he has scored in 4 Premier League games this season.

Following the match against Leicester City, during which Nunez missed some good chances, the striker has had 52 shots in the Premier League, 23 of which have been on target. Nunez has missed 14 big chances, more than any other player in the Premier League this season.

Jurgen Klopp will not want to talk about it and rightly so but he must be a little concerned about what he is seeing from his big summer signing in-front of goal.

Liverpool were fortunate to beat Leicester City as the Foxes scored two own goals and if it wasn’t for the own goals, Liverpool could easily have lost the match. If the Reds had suffered defeat, there would have been a lot more talk about Nunez failing to hit the back of the net.

If we look at players in Europe's top 10 leagues who have played at least 500 minutes this season, Nunez ranks first for shots per 90 minutes (6.0), but 99th for goals per 90 minutes (0.57).

Gary Neville spoke after the match against Leicester City and said, “I have a feeling he could be that world-class striker in a year or two. I think he will get bigger and stronger in this league the more he plays and I think it will start to happen for him in front of goal.”

Liverpool fans will hope Nunez starts taking his chances soon because the misses could end up being costly when it comes to winning trophies this season.