Pundit Tony Cascarino compares Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez to Divock Origi. The Uruguayan joined for £64m this summer.
Tony Cascarino talked Liverpool in his latest column for The Times – and didn’t have much positive to say. That’s understandable, of course, after the Reds fell to Leeds United at the weekend.
That’s now back-to-back defeats in the Premier League, both against relegation-threatened teams. This simply isn’t the Liverpool of last season or even really the last six years.
Cascarino puts that down to many factors but a few players received scathing criticism from him. One of those was Darwin Nunez, who the pundit compares to Divock Origi.
“And then there is Darwin Núñez,” he writes. “For me, the striker is only a minor upgrade on Divock Origi and is not the right man to lead Liverpool’s line.
“The Uruguay international does not appear technically good enough and he loses the ball too quickly, which is hardly ideal when Liverpool are so poor at winning it back.”
Darwin Nunez and Divock Origi
The talk around Nunez is very strange. He only turned 23 in the summer, is playing in a new country with a language he doesn’t speak, trying to perform in a team that’s struggling for cohesion from top to bottom.
That should be enough for pundits to give him some time to show his best form. You’d think. Maybe hold off on the Origi comparisons until he’s had half a season.
The fact that Nunez has already scored six goals is largely ignored. That’s already more than Origi managed last season and the Uruguayan averages one every 121 minutes. Add in his assist and it’s a contribution every 103 minutes.
Per Fbref, his goals per 90 without penalties is the eighth-best in the Premier League. Even with penalties – which Nunez doesn’t take – he only drops to ninth.
On what planet is that bad? How is that worth criticism? The idea that he loses the ball too quickly is also complete nonsense – per Whoscored, Nunez is dispossessed 0.9 times per Premier League game. He has a poor touch 1.1 times per game.
Both figures are completely normal for forwards.
Saturday was the first time in five starts that Nunez didn’t score. Instead of celebrating a period of goof form, it’s an opportunity to say he’s not really very good. Cascarino is merely the latest pundit to talk like this and it’s bizarre.
There are a thousand reasons to criticise Liverpool this season but Nunez’s signing just isn’t one of them.
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