Darwin Nunez is in an exclusive club.
He’s one of only two players rivalling Erling Haaland this season.
Eyebrows were raised in the summer when Liverpool sanctioned a deal worth up to £85m to pry the Uruguayan forward away from Benfica amid interest from rivals Manchester United. If all of the clauses are met, the 23-year-old will be the Merseysiders’ record purchase, eclipsing the £75m spent on Virgil van Dijk.
The fee came with baggage. There are expectations and fans were quick to label him a flop during pre-season with a number of fail compilations popping up on social media. He then netted four times against RB Leipzig, won the battle of the new No9s against Haaland in the Community Shield and changed the game for the Reds against Fulham, scoring and assisting in a 2-2 opening-day draw.
He had six goals and an assist to his name in 114 minutes.
Nunez looked set to add to that tally against Crystal Palace having racked up five shots in the opening 50 minutes. He looked dangerous but a reckless red card brought his time on the pitch to a premature end. It also halted his fledgling Liverpool career.
Back in the first-team fold, Nunez completed his first full match for the Reds in the 3-2 loss to Arsenal. It was during the match at the Emirates that the one-time Almeria man scored his first goal since early August and, despite being downbeat following the loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz to injury, manager Jurgen Klopp praised his big summer signing afterwards.
"Good. He was good, it was good. Sharp, good, involved in nearly everything, scored a great goal."
The Liverpool No. 27 was comfortably the most dangerous player for the away team. He had three shots on the night, more than Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Diaz managed as a collective.
But this tends to be the case whenever the ex-Benfica man is on the pitch. Against Rangers at Anfield, he attempted six shots. Diaz and Jota had a combined five efforts, while Salah sprung into life in the second half with four attempts of his own. In the opening 45 minutes, however, it was all Nunez, with the centre-forward being responsible for 31% of the home side’s attempts.
The 13-cap international is a chance magnet. He is an agent of chaos. It is a cliche but he makes things happen. The explosive forward has taken 32 shots for Liverpool in his 430 minutes on the pitch. He is averaging a shot every 13 minutes and he’s posting these numbers while still acclimatising to the league and the team.
In fact, he is one of only three players in the Premier League this season to be averaging over 3.5 shots per game. Aleksander Mitrovic (3.9) and Haaland (4.2) are the only other players to be alongside Nunez in this exclusive club.
Mitrovic has six goals to his name this term and Haaland looks a shoo-in for the Golden Boot having scored 15 times in his nine outings. Nunez, on the other hand, is not even the leading scorer for the Reds. Sample size always matters when looking at data and the Liverpool forward has just 267 Premier League minutes to his name. Furthermore, previous data should not be used as a way to forecast anything.
Having said that though, you cannot help but feel that maybe now is the time to truly unleash Nunez onto the Premier League. Liverpool need goals more than ever due to their leaky defence. Klopp’s men have conceded 12 goals in their eight Premier League outings this season, six of which arrived in their last two matches.
Their nine goals against Bournemouth skew their attacking numbers. Exclude that and the Reds have just 11 goals in seven matches. The new shape deployed by Klopp this season has had an impact on the potency of the forward line. Salah, for example, is averaging fewer shots per 90 (3 down from 4.5 last term) and is now more of a creator, with key passes rising from 2.1 to 3.3 per 90.
If Nunez is able to maintain his average of 3.8 shots per game over a much larger sample size then he is bound to score goals. Mitrovic and Haaland are proof of that. Klopp is famed for showing patience with new signings as he looks to bed them in, but his hand may be forced now that Diaz is missing for a sustained period of time.
Without the Colombian in their starting XI, the Reds lack an unpredictable individual with a burst of pace. They lack someone who is perpetually on the move and looking to stretch the defence. Jota and Firmino cannot do it while Salah is being tasked with other things.
Nunez could fire Liverpool up the table. With more time on the pitch, shots might not be the only department he’s rivalling Haaland in.
