Mohamed Salah couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The Egyptian, bewildered by Darwin Nunez’s blatant second-half miss against Luton Town, collapsed to the ground as Liverpool’s hopes of scoring an early goal faded into the night.
By the time Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross found Salah at the back post, the Egyptian’s cushioned header was met by the onrushing Nunez, who looked certain to add to his ever-growing collection of Liverpool goals with what should have been a game-changing tap-in in front of the travelling Kop.
Instead, in what has become a sad trend of the Uruguayan’s Anfield career thus far, he blatantly cleared the ball over the crossbar with Thomas Kaminski’s goal at his mercy. In the end, Luis Diaz’s injury-time equalizer saved him some face.
This week has been a case of a seismic step ahead followed by two perplexing steps back for the Uruguayan, as has been the case so often since his £64m arrival from Benfica.
This performance at Kenilworth Road, in which he failed to pass Kaminski with any of his nine efforts, is more confirmation that, despite the promise with which he began the campaign, expectations of the Uruguayan must be restrained.
In August, he scored the game-winning goal against Newcastle United. While on Europa League duty in Linz in September, he took up responsibility for Liverpool’s penalty kicks. In October, he led the charge in a routine batting aside of Nottingham Forest. He scored the game-winning goal against Bournemouth in November.
But, for all that the Uruguayan has accomplished, this season has also demonstrated why a potential club-record deal to buy the 23-year-old was so highly subsidized, with a further £21 million made available to Benfica if Nunez meets pre-agreed performance standards.
In the waning stages of Liverpool’s opening-day tie at Stamford Bridge in August, there was a sloppy touch. There were dismal misses against Union Saint-Gilloise and Toulouse in October. On Sunday, he added an unbelievable miss against Luton Town to his increasing list of undesirable Liverpool misses.
Yes, it has already been a season of exponential improvement, with Jurgen Klopp noting this week that Nunez was at a “different moment” from the difficulties he faced during his tumultuous initial season in the Premier League.
Nunez is also impressive in terms of numbers. In fact, no one in the Premier League is averaging more shots on target per 90 minutes than Liverpool’s No.9 (2.29), while averaging a goal or an assist roughly every 72 minutes in his 10 league games this season.
“His speed, finishing skills, and desire.” “When he’s fit, he’s really fit, so he can go and go again,” Klopp added. “You never know where he’ll end up.” It’s his first year, and he came in for a lot of money, and we all know, OK, he scored but not all the time, and if you have another year and another year like that, he’s still the same player with a lot of promise, but that’s it.
“It just goes to show that some players require more time.” We tend to forget this. People wonder why Wataru Endo isn’t like that due of his age. But he has a distinct personality from the other boys, and you can see the progress he is making.
“He has another five years of top-flight football in him.” That’s fantastic. He has a lot of talent and has never played at this level before, but I am really pleased with him today. So it’s the same old story. When things work out, people claim they need time, but everyone asks, ‘How long will it take?'”
Nunez, who was signed to a long-term contract last summer, was clearly not seen as a short cure. However, the comical misses on display at Kenilworth Road must be eliminated if Liverpool are to have realistic hopes for the rest of the season.
Salah’s reaction on Sunday afternoon says it all, from his brilliance at Bournemouth to the lows of Luton.
