Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez has told his doubters to ‘calm down’ after his latest display for the club which saw him named as Player of the Match.
After the break for the winter World Cup, Premier League action returned for the Reds on Boxing Day and they managed to find their groove swiftly to pick up all three points.
Indeed, goals from Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Stefan Bajcetic were enough to beat Aston Villa 3-1 despite Ollie Watkins pulling one back for the home side.
After the game, Nunez – who played a crucial role in setting up the third Liverpool goal – was awarded the Player of the Match award, but some fans seemed to think it shouldn’t have gone to the striker.
In response to any criticism, the Uruguayan took to Twitter to say: “We won on a difficult court and we are going for more! Thanks fans for the support. To the rest, calm down…”
TIF Thoughts on Darwin Nunez and Liverpool…
Nunez certainly had an influential game but really ought to have added his name to the scoresheet. Indeed, he finished the match with the highest expected goals value of any player (1.15 xG) but failed to score with any of his six shots, despite taking five of them inside the box (as per BBC Sport).
According to Sofascore, he missed four big chances in the game, which is the same amount of successful passes he made out of 12 attempted – though he did also deliver one key pass to a teammate.
There’s no doubt it was a chaotic performance from the striker, but at the end of the day, he was a nuisance to the opposition and helped his team get the three points.
Still, his misses could come back to haunt Liverpool eventually – after all, no player has missed more big chances in the Premier League this season than Nunez’s 12.
Do you think Darwin Nunez played well?
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