Gary Neville says Liverpool players will be ‘fuming’ with teammate after Everton defeat

Darwin Nunez missed an excellent chance to equalise in Liverpool’s defeat to Everton (Getty)

Gary Neville believes Liverpool players will be ‘fuming’ with Darwin Nunez after his miss during the 2-0 defeat to Everton on Wednesday evening.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have suffered a major blow in the Premier League title race as the loss at Goodison Park has left them three points behind leaders Arsenal and just a point ahead of Manchester City, who have played two games fewer.

Jarrad Branthwaite opened the scoring for Everton but Nunez had an excellent an excellent chance to equalise in the first half but he blasted his shot from close range straight at Jordan Pickford.

And Neville feels Liverpool’s £85 million signing would have angered his teammates by spurning such an excellent opportunity to pull level in the Merseyside derby.

‘For me tonight the passing was a little bit slow at the back, it was sloppy, they gave the ball away, they gave free kicks away, they missed big chances,’ Neville said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

‘The Nunez one, he’s still a striker who’s developing but he cost a lot of money.

‘We watched Nicolas Jackson last night and that young man who’s been criticised heavily in the last four days because of the chances he’s missed but Darwin Nunez is missing as big, if not bigger chances, and with a bigger price tag.

Liverpool are now three points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal(PA)

‘And that one in the first-half, I don’t really ever go at players for missing chances, I’ve never felt actually, to be fair, because of the position I played in, worthy of being able to do so, but I think if you spoke to any striker, if that was a striker in my team that had missed, I’d be fuming.

‘That is a really bad miss, it was as simple as putting the ball in the back of the net should be for a striker at this level.

‘We were right behind it, the goal was gaping, yet he snatches, he’s not got the confidence, the belief, he hasn’t built in his mind that, ‘what is a Darwin Nunez finish’.

‘I always think the best strikers you know what they’re going to do when they get into a certain position. Mo Salah, his teammate, we know Mo Salah cuts in on his his left foot and sets it out to the far corner, he was below-par tonight as well.’

Meanwhile, former Liverpool striker, Michael Owen, could not comprehend Nunez’s choice of finish for his chance at Goodison Park.

‘I cannot defend that in any way, shape or form. He can finish sometimes but to go from one extreme to another and be seven yards out and blast it straight down the middle is just not good enough,’ Owen told Premier League Productions.

‘It’s bits of play that you just don’t see world class players doing. It’s fundamental, basic things in front of goal and when you’ve got players who have proven they’re good, to be doing that is pretty poor.

I just cannot get my head around somebody who, only a few weeks ago against Brentford chipped the goalkeeper – I couldn’t believe my eyes at just how audacious and classy the finish was – but I said at the time it was the wrong thing to do.

‘If he’s thinking like that in front of goal then God knows what he’s thinking in general. I cannot get my head around how you can finish like that one night and be so calm and calculated and confident in one of the most difficult finishes known to man – it was impossible, virtually, what he did – and then get in a simple situation here and just put your head down and blast it as hard as you can. I cannot fathom it.

‘It’s frustrating but it’s not because I can do it – he can do things that I can’t do. It’s more to the point that I’ve seen him doing. It’s in the locker.

‘I go back to that Brentford finish, I fell off my stool. I was watching it like, ‘wow, what have I just seen?’. It’s that extreme and then it’s this extreme… how can that happen in the space of a few weeks? Is it confidence? I don’t know. I can’t explain what he’s thinking!’

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