Darwin Nunez has made no starts under Arne Slot, and seen only 62 minutes of Premier League football, so could he start to consider a Liverpool exit?
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Joined Reds from Benfica in 2022Yet to unlock his full potentialFaces some big decisions on his futureFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty/GOALWHAT HAPPENED?
The enigmatic Uruguayan frontman completed a big-money move to Anfield in the summer of 2022. He arrived in England during the same window as Erling Haaland, who has been a revelation for Premier League champions Manchester City.
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While Haaland is up to 99 goals for City, Nunez has managed just 33 through 100 outings for Liverpool. He struggled to nail down a central striking berth under Jurgen Klopp and is now a back-up option for new Reds boss Slot – with questions of his value to the collective cause seemingly never far away.
Getty ImagesWHAT POYET SAID
Quizzed on whether Nunez could get itchy feet if his game time remains limited, ex-Uruguay international Gus Poyet – speaking in association with – told GOAL: “Yes, but it depends on you. Some players are okay with that, or they accept their position in the team. There are others that say ‘I want to play and go somewhere else’. It will depend on himself, how he feels and how happy his family is. It’s really personal and it’s not easy. Some people adapt and some don’t.
“Me, I knew at Chelsea. I had a one-year contract and I knew that I won’t play for [Claudio] Ranieri and I went and said ‘I’m not staying here, I want to play’. But that was me, with my character at 32/33 years old. Other players they accept it and it’s okay because in a team you need 25 players. Liverpool have been repeating the team quite a lot at the beginning of the season, nine/10 players are the same, so the rest know it is going to be difficult if they don’t drop or there is no rotation system. You need to accept your position in the team. Not everybody does that in the same way.”
DID YOU KNOW?
While Nunez has endured his issues on Merseyside, the 25-year-old is a talismanic presence for his country. Asked about how the mercurial forward sets about unlocking his full potential, Poyet added: “I think in Uruguay he does. When he goes to Uruguay and Marcelo Bielsa gave him the No.9 shirt and said ‘you are my striker, you are my first choice ahead of everybody – ahead of [Luis] Suarez, ahead of [Edinson] Cavani, all of them’. He does feel that he is the main striker for a big team, because the national team is big. I don’t think he feels like that at Liverpool. That shows a bit.
“Without knowing him personally, sometimes the players need that – to have that feeling of being the one. When it comes to Thursday and you don’t know if you are going to play on Saturday, it creates uncertainty. Some players take it in the right way, some players are affected. It could be that feeling of not being the No.9 that he wants to be. Let’s see. In Uruguay he has been outstanding. With the system that [Marcelo] Bielsa plays, it goes perfect for his characteristics and he shows that he wants to be a No.9. Did I see that at Liverpool? It’s difficult because he doesn’t play week in, week out.”
