‘He harassed people’: New Liverpool signing boasts the skillset of a former Reds icon, says Phil Thompson

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Darwin Nunez has a similar skillset to Fernando Torres at his best. That’s the opinion of Liverpool legend Phil Thompson.

It wasn’t too long ago that Darwin Nunez was considered a flop after failing to thrive in 20 minutes of a pre-season friendly against Manchester United. Now he looks like a potential phenomenon.

And he really does. Nunez is yet to start a competitive game for Liverpool but is already putting in major contributions. Without him, the Reds would have nothing to show for the season so far. Instead, they’ve got one trophy and a Premier League point.

Nunez won a penalty and then scored in the Community Shield win over Manchester City. He then came off the bench again to score and assist as Liverpool drew 2-2 with Fulham. If this is what he’s doing while still adapting to the team, we can’t wait to see things a few months from now.

And so the hype around Nunez continues to grow. Phil Thompson feels we might have seen something similar before, too, in Fernando Torres on his arrival in 2007.

“I’m very excited [by Nunez],” Thompson told Off The Ball. “We all go on about how well he played for Benfica against Liverpool because he tore us apart.

“I liken the boy to Torres, when Torres first came to Liverpool. The Torres that was hungry, he was passionate, he wanted to learn, he wanted to improve, he ran the channels, he harassed people, he was good in the air.

“He really wanted it massively, and I see that in this young man.”

The Darwin Nunez skillset

It’s a great comparison, actually. Nunez is that type of player – a traditional do-it-all no.9 who wants to attack defenders and score goals. Liverpool haven’t had such a player for quite some time.

In fact, the last may have been Torres. He, too, was that all-action threat who was just as likely to beat a defender to a header as he was to beat him for pace.

And that pace is something Nunez truly boasts – maybe even on Torres’s level. If he can put it all together as the Spaniard did, we think Jurgen Klopp might have his perfect striker.