'I'd be fuming' - Gary Neville breaks his own rule to make Darwin Nunez Liverpool claim

Gary Neville has explained why he would be frustrated by Darwin Nunez's miss against Everton if he was a teammate of the Liverpool striker - breaking his own rule to criticise the player.

The Reds were beaten 2-0 by the Blues in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday night to deal a major blow to their Premier League title hopes. Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the goals that ultimately handed a fourth top-flight defeat for the Reds of the campaign.

Nunez had an opportunity to get on the score sheet for Liverpool in the first half when the score was 1-0 in favour of Everton. However, the Uruguayan struck his effort straight at Blues goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

That effort has already been the subject of discussion post-match, with Jamie Carragher critical of Nunez during his analysis on Sky Sports. Now Neville has echoed the comments from Carragher, who took aim at Nunez for not finding the back of the net when it mattered most.

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Neville also went on to compare the criticism of Nunez to what Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson has received over the course of his debut season in the Premier League.

“We watched Nicolas Jackson last [Monday] night [Arsenal vs Chelsea], a young man who’s been criticised heavily in the last four days because of the chances he’s missed," said the former Manchester United defender on The Gary Neville podcast. "But Darwin Nunez is missing as big, if not bigger chances, and with a bigger price tag.

“And that one in the first half, I don’t really ever go at players for missing chances. I’ve never felt, 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.”