Nedum Onuoha claims £64m Liverpool player will be ‘disappointed with himself’ this season

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Plenty of Liverpool players have every right to be happy with their form this season.

Things have been going well at Anfield. Virgil van Dijk is back to his best, Alisson Becker has been terrific once again, while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah have also been fantastic.

But according to pundit Nedum Onuoha, there is one player who might be a touch ‘disappointed’ with his form – Reds No.9 Darwin Nunez. Speaking on the Planet Premier League podcast, Onuoha claimed that the 24-year-old will know that he should be scoring more goals.

“I wouldn’t want to play against him, but then in the same breath I think a lot of people don’t expect much from him because he’s not really lighting up the stats sheet, whether it be it goals and so on,” said the former Manchester City defender. “For the amount you see him involved in the game he tends to not come away with too much. But he still serves a purpose, he still has an impact.

“I think there is some disappointment from some. If you see him starting some games and things aren’t going well, I feel like there’s a finite amount of chances that somebody can miss before you stop clapping and saying ‘keep going it, will come’ and I think unfortunately for him he sometimes falls foul of that.

“But again, I wouldn’t want to be playing against him because he’s all-action, he’s very much involved in the game. I’m sure he’s disappointed with himself that he hasn’t scored as many goals as he’d like.
When the pressure’s on I think you do hear a few grumbles in the crowd and socially as well.”

Nunez aware of need for more

If there’s one man who’ll know that he should have scored more this season, then you can bet it’s Nunez himself.

The Uruguayan has bagged eight goals in all competitions. Having hit 15 last year, he’s just about on course to post up similar numbers.

That’s not necessarily bad, especially when you’ve got a goal machine like Salah picking up the slack. But when you think of the amount of chances that Nunez has missed, it could be so much more.

The former Benfica man won’t need telling of course. He’ll know better than anyone that his numbers have been a little disappointing.

Despite that though, it’s hard to be too upset with Darwin. He gives this Liverpool team far more than just goals.

If he were offering nothing else and still missing chances, that’s when frustration would really start to creep in. And although Onuoha is right to mention that there have been a few grumbles amongst fans, most will be generally happy with Nunez.

The £64m man has now posted up more assists than goals this season. His two in Liverpool’s last game – the Carabao Cup win over Fulham – mean that Nunez is now into double figures for the campaign. Eight goals and 10 assists. That’s impressive.

So, although Darwin may harbour some frustration over his slight lack of goals, he shouldn’t be too downbeat. We still think he’s due a couple of free-scoring games in the near future. Even if that doesn’t happen, he’s still absolutely key to this Liverpool team. For now, that’s enough for us.