Darwin Nunez has come in for plenty of criticism lately – and on Monday, the struggling Liverpool (opens in new tab) centre-forward was even on the receiving end of stick from *checks notes* Domino’s Pizza.
Following the Reds’ 3-1 loss at Brentford (opens in new tab) – their fifth league defeat of the season already – the popular fast food chain took a somewhat harsh dig at Nunez, who had one goal-bound effort cleared off the line and was flagged offside when he eventually did find the net.
The Uruguayan hasn’t scored in any competition since a brace against Southampton (opens in new tab) just before the World Cup (where he also failed to score); he’s drawn a blank in five of his last six Premier League appearances.
Sorry if we’ve missed any orders tonight, we’ve just had this guy start pic.twitter.com/7slR29SPQ7January 2, 2023
And the stats are sure to make for sobering reading for the 23-year-old: no Premier League player has missed more big chances than his 15 (out of 19) this term.
The fact that Nunez has had so many clear-cut goalscoring opportunities (only Erling Haaland and Ivan Toney have had more) shows that he is regularly getting himself in the right positions – but his finishing has all too often been painfully wasteful.
Given that he cost a club-record £85m when he joined from Benfica (opens in new tab) last summer, Liverpool will want to see a much improved end product and fast.
Indeed, Jurgen Klopp criticised Nunez’s “shooting technique” (opens in new tab) as his goal drought continued.