Darwin Nunez may supplant Virgil van Dijk as Liverpool’s file signing, if sure add-ons are triggered. He has already outdone him in a single respect. It took the Dutchman 84 minutes to attain on his Liverpool bow. Even together with harm time, the Uruguayan solely wanted 37. As these debut targets got here in opposition to Everton and Manchester City respectively, they appear significantly auspicious.
And if Van Dijk was by no means going to be judged on his purpose return, he’s proof that worth tags are usually talked about way more earlier than a signing has proved a hit. He is described because the £75 million man much less continuously as of late.
Nunez price £64 million, which may rise to £85 million. Van Dijk has made a profession out of wanting unflustered. He had the temperament to deal with the added consideration. Nunez could also be below rather less stress after his startling impression within the Community Shield. “To score that goal was important, but for him it’s the same as it was for me; the transfer fee is not something you should think about,” mentioned the defender. “I don’t think he does.”
Nunez can be following in others’ footsteps. A theme of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool is a capability to signal gamers who can slot straight in, their rapid impacts testomony to astute recruitment. Sadio Mane scored after 63 minutes of his debut, Mohamed Salah after 57 minutes of his. It took Diogo Jota simply 41 minutes on the pitch to open his account, unfold over two substitute appearances.
The trademark Klopp scorers are likely to have frequent denominators – velocity, a willingness to go straight for purpose, an elusiveness within the field – however Nunez, extra of a towering centre-forward than a flexible winger, may very well be outlined by the variations together with his predecessor.
Klopp has spent latest weeks warning of an adaptation interval. Instead, whereas Manchester City and Erling Haaland not often seemed on the identical wavelength, Nunez and Liverpool seemed higher suited to 1 one other. “Obviously he is a totally different player to Sadio, for example,” Van Dijk added. “But we have moved on, we got him in, different player, different qualities, and we can use those in a positive way.
“You see he is direct: he makes good runs in behind, he’s quick, he’s strong. He’s a modern-day striker. Haaland is the same. They have similar attributes, and they are difficult to play against. He [Nunez] showed it. He came on at a time when City were a little bit more fatigued, I think, and caused difficulties for them, scoring and getting the handball.”
If it factors to a potential function as a super-sub within the brief time period, tearing into tiring defences after Roberto Firmino has worn them out together with his relentless operating, the function mannequin for the newcomer would be the least prolific of Klopp’s definitive entrance three. Van Dijk was the defender who acquired off to a scoring begin. Firmino is the attacker who defends from the entrance. That the Brazilian began in opposition to City was maybe partially because of his standing because the disruptor in chief.
“We play in a way that as a striker, you do a lot of defending as well,” Van Dijk mentioned. “That’s something strikers have to learn. Bobby obviously mastered it and I think he’s one of the best ones in that position to do it. For Darwin to learn from Bobby, but also bring his own qualities into the game with runs in behind, mixing it up, it’s good.”
It is partly a query of power and partly one in all element, of understanding the finer factors of the urgent recreation. The positional factor of Liverpool’s high-speed soccer could be underestimated; they will wreak chaos in a deliberate vogue.
And but if they will signal kinds of gamers, ones who look pure matches in a Klopp facet, if their finances equips them to draw high-quality recruits, Haaland’s uneasy begin to life at City exhibits it’s not so simple as pairing an excellent participant with an excellent crew.
Plug-and-play brilliance can come courtesy of chemistry and momentum, the form of qualities that may be onerous to quantify in statistical analyses of potential recruits. First impressions have counted for lots in Liverpool’s ahead line within the Klopp period. And if the distinguished group of their debut scorers was based slightly earlier and contains Roger Hunt and Kevin Keegan, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, Nunez finds himself in good firm now.
Source: www.impartial.co.uk