Paul Merson believes there was one ‘worrying’ moment from Liverpool in their 1-0 win over Man City on Sunday. The Reds may need to think about things.
Liverpool will rightly be thrilled with their 1-0 win over Manchester City this weekend. The Reds went in as underdogs at Anfield, expected to be right up against it as the undefeated champions looked to make a statement.
Jurgen Klopp stuck with his 4-4-2 formation – despite calls for him to change – and his players delivered. The Reds held out for a 1-0 win, keeping a clean sheet and producing a moment of magic for their goal.
But Paul Merson still believes there was a real ‘worrying’ moment for Liverpool. It came from Darwin Nunez as the forward failed to spot Mohamed Salah clean through on goal late on.
“I did tell you that Mohamed Salah was going to be a better player with [Roberto] Firmino in the team, didn’t I?” he told Sportskeeda. “How many runs did make from the outside to the inside yesterday? It worked a treat.
“When Darwin Nunez came on, the worrying thing was that he didn’t pass the ball to Salah. It’s even more worrying that he didn’t even spot Salah’s run.
“They might play [Fabio] Carvalho or Harvey Elliott further up the pitch this week. With West Ham’s injuries at the back, this might be a good time to help Nunez with his game.
“With him on the pitch, however, you won’t get the best out of Salah.”
Liverpool 1-0 Man City
Merson did indeed say that Liverpool would be better with Firmino on the pitch – as we covered here. And we largely agreed with the idea that the Reds are superior with the Brazilian.
But the idea that Salah can’t mesh with Nunez is simply false. For one thing, Firmino wasn’t on the pitch when Salah scored the winner – he’d gone off for Nunez.
The bigger change for Liverpool’s no.11 was that he played centrally in the 4-4-2. It allowed him far more freedom to run the channels and his strike partner consistently pulled defenders away to allow Salah isolation against opponents.
Firmino did that, Diogo Jota did that – Nunez did that.
Now, Nunez’s failure to spot that pass was infuriating and possibly a bit of a worry. Unfortunately, we don’t know why he didn’t look up or why he chose not to pass. Maybe it was greed, maybe he wanted to make a point, or maybe Nunez simply didn’t think he could make the pass.
Whatever it was, we doubt Klopp is worried. He’ll have a word and it won’t happen next time. In the meantime, we’re excited at the potential of a Salah/Nunez front-two.
As mad as it sounds, they might actually suit one another.
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