Darwin Nunez made his Premier League debut for Liverpool against Fulham on Saturday following his £85million transfer from Benfica – and got off to a scoring start.
But it wasn’t a debut for the record books for the Uruguay international, who didn’t have the greatest game of his career in Liverpool red as Jurgen Klopp’s men dropped two points early on in their title challenge.
Klopp started Roberto Firmino up top at Craven Cottage with the Brazilian flanked by Luis Diaz on his left and Mohamed Salah on his right. After the first half, it was becoming clear the striker was offering Liverpool little in the final third, and a change was made.
Replacing Firmino, Nunez took up the number nine role and immediately provided the Reds with an attacking outlet.
This, in turn, created more space for the Liverpool midfield three to operate in and it wasn’t long before they began pulling the strings and teeing up the big man with opportunities.
Nunez had a total of four shots, with three of these on target. Two were considered big chances that he missed, although he did set up another big chance for a teammate, according to his Premier League stats page.
On paper the stats are promising, but Nunez’s overall performance left a lot to be desired.
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Even before Nunez came on Liverpool were sluggish and laboured going forward. That frenetic energy Sadio Mane brought to the squad just wasn’t there and Mohamed Salah appeared to be missing his partner in crime who he’d bounce off to devasting effect.
Replacing Firmino with Nunez provided the opportunity for this to change, but the Uruguayan striker failed to ignite any real energy into the game from a Liverpool perspective.
It will of course take the forward some time to get up to speed in the Premier League.
But Nunez was at times slow and sloppy against Fulham and was dispossessed on a couple of occasions – once by 34-year-old centre-back Tim Ream, who outpaced him and robbed him of the ball in a dangerous position.
The fallout saw Fulham fire a shot at goal while Nunez was loudly reprimanded by Jordan Henderson.
Salah was Klopp’s hero on the day. The leader of the old guard who’s lost his familiar strike partners but continues to come up with the goods.
There’s evidence to suggest Salah will strike up a positive relationship with Nunez, similar to the one he shared with Mane. But right now Liverpool are in the midst of a mini transition and Klopp will be expecting much more from his record signing.
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