Michael Owen was left perplexed, angry, frustrated and visibly annoyed as he watched Liverpool crumble to a 2-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park.
Not only did Liverpool drop points in the Premier League title race, but they deserved to against a team above the relegation zone.
Losing bragging rights in the Merseyside derby and probably all but confirming that Jurgen Klopp won’t leave with the Premier League title in hand is what is going to hurt the fans the most.
This is supposed to be Klopp’s final few weeks at the club, you would suspect that the players would fight tooth and nail for him, but it was far from it.
And let’s be honest, is any of this a surprise? It shouldn’t be! These types of performances have now become a regular occurrence.
It could even be argued that when Liverpool were going through their injury crisis and the kids were playing, there was more fight, desire and willingness to win.
Amazingly enough, ever since the senior players have returned from the treatment room, from Mohamed Salah to Trent Alexander-Arnold, things have become worse.
Owen was keen to highlight the lack of finishing from his former side and how someone like Darwin Nunez made his ‘head explode’, as he told Premier League Productions (24/04/24 at 10:25 pm).
From that Nunez miss at the near post when he blasted the ball straight at Jordan Pickford, Salah miss-kicking the ball every time it reached him and Luis Diaz even got in on the action, for the wrong reasons.
All of this infuriated Owen and he went on a passionate rant about what he was seeing from the forward players in the final third.
Liverpool’s finishing against Everton
“Some of them are just shocking attacks,” raged Owen. “How Nunez can chip the goalkeeper away at Brentford from inside his own penalty box and show all that composure, then he gets to seven yards out and you just smack it down the throat of the goalkeeper when you have half a goal to aim at. It just defies belief.
“But what about this? Awful touch. Miss-kick, and again! I mean, these are world-class players. A lot of it is basic. You don’t miss-kick the ball. it’s unbelievable – I can’t defend that in any way, shape or form. For a player that shows in fits and starts that he can finish sometimes, to go from one extreme to another, that’s just not good enough.
“Awful touch (by Nunez). Awful miss-kick (from Salah) going wide. Awful miss-kick over the top. I mean three bits of play there that you just don’t see world-class players doing – Even that, it gets an oooh from the crowd (Diaz’s effort). But the technique is all wrong. You can’t strike a straight ball there. That’s a curled shot.
“The one that has made my brain explode tonight is the Nunez finish. I just can’t get my head around somebody that, only a few weeks ago, we watched him running through against Brentford and he chipped the goalkeeper. I just couldn’t believe my eyes at how audacious, how classy and how good a finish. I said, at the time, it was the wrong thing to do. If he is thinking like that in front of goal, then god knows what he is thinking of in general.”
Huge pressure on Darwin Nunez
Is this a sign of things to come? If Salah does leave for Saudi Arabia and Diogo Jota continues to have injury issues, then the pressure will be seriously ramped up on a player like Nunez next season.
The pressure is intensifying on him especially because, whilst Salah is also off it, at least he has previous and fans know what he is capable of.
Also, how Liverpool are now losing games, is just going to create extra negativity and fans will want to vent their frustration on someone.
You just worry for someone like Nunez next season. If the reliability of Salah’s goals are no longer there, then there will be more emphasis on him and that’s where things might become really problematic.