Premier League legend Alan Shearer believes Darwin Nunez’s finishing is ‘not going to get better’ but is otherwise full of praise for the Liverpool forward.
Nunez opened the scoring in Liverpool’s 2-0 win against Aston Villa on Saturday, a result that puts the Reds five points clear at the top of the table going into the international break.
The scoreline could have been greater though with the Uruguayan failing to convert several brilliant chances in a performance fans have become accustomed to.
Since his £70million move to Anfield in 2022, Nunez has scored 36 goals and made 19 assists in 110 appearances but has become notorious for missing easy goals.
Last season, he hit the woodwork nine times, nearly more than double any other player in the league, and missed 27 big chances, second only to Erling Haaland.
Newcastle legend Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer, doesn’t think this will change under Arne Slot but hailed the 25-year-old’s other attributes.
‘Without doubt [he’s a handful], his pace is a great strength and he’s always going to cause defenders problems,’ Shearer said on Match of the Day.
‘This is a really clever finish. Now, if only you could say that so many other times about him because he’s very erratic and his finishing at times is poor, and that will frustrate some.
‘On the positive side, he never, ever stops getting in there and you have to admire that. He links up really, really well with Mo Salah.
‘He’s got 22 goals in 73 appearances in the Premier League for Liverpool but it could, and should, be a whole lot more because he does miss big chances, like this one.
‘His movement is excellent, the way he spins and gets himself in there to create that space for him. But he should have been putting that in the back of the net.
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‘I just think he’s better when he doesn’t have time to think about it and it happens naturally. When he has that three or four seconds to think about it, he becomes more erratic.’
Asked by fellow pundit Micah Richards how Nunez could improve his finishing, Shearer replied: ‘You’ve got to practice, practice, practice.
‘But I’m not sure that’s going to get better. He will have times where you think that he’s improved massively and he’s scoring goals for a month, very streaky.
‘But in terms of Liverpool in forward positions, they’ve got Salah, [Cody] Gakpo, [Diogo] Jota, [Luis] Diaz and Nunez. Salah’s the one that’s guaranteed and you’ve got two of the others who are all going to be fighting from the other four to be playing. In those positions, they are incredibly strong.’
Just seven of Nunez’s 14 appearances under Slot so far have been from the start, but the manager has defended his player, suggesting that he’ll continue rotating his forwards depending on form and opposition.
Following the international break, Nunez and Liverpool will next be in action on November 24 when they travel to Southampton.
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