Neil Jones believes that one Liverpool player will ‘go from strength to strength’ this season.
Darwin Nunez scored 15 goals in his first season at Anfield last season (Transfermarkt), but he was still heavily criticized for the chances he missed.
The explosive Uruguayan has four goals and four assists from 11 games so far in 2023/24 (Transfermarkt), a tally that appears all the more impressive given that he has frequently had to make an impact from the substitutes’ bench.
Jones stated in his most recent column for Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing for CaughtOffside that the 24-year-old’s improvement over the last few months eliminates the need for another center-forward, such as the recently-linked Victor Osimhen, to come in at this position.
Nunez has certainly looked a lot sharper since the start of the season and is contributing much more in terms of his overall play.
He’s taken just 11 matches to equal his assists tally from 42 games last term (Transfermarkt), while his relentless off-the-ball running proves very difficult for opposition defenders to combat, as was seen with his lung-bursting counterattack to tee up Mo Salah’s result-clinching goal against Everton last weekend.
At just 24, he’s probably just coming into the peak years of his career now, so it’s likely that we haven’t yet seen the best of him at Liverpool. Based on what he’s shown in recent weeks, just imagine how devastating he’ll be once he reaches his full potential!
Osimhen is a marvellous goalscorer who’s excelled in Serie A, but as Jones rightly pointed out, Jurgen Klopp also has Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota to call upon as centre-forward if needed, as well as Nunez.
As it stands, the Anfield transfer budget would surely be put to better use in other areas of the squad, perhaps on a truly reliable defensive midfielder or a versatile defender.
