Liverpool have suffered a major blow in their hopes of winning the Premier League title this season in the form of a 2-0 loss to Everton on Wednesday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds were bullied at Goodison Park by their Merseyside rivals, who got the better of them on the pitch and on the scoresheet.
Everton opened the scoring in the 28th minute as Ibrahima Konate failed to clear a loose ball and it found its way to Jarrad Branthwaite, who poked home off the post.
Then, just before the hour mark, an Everton corner fell kindly to the unmarked Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had all the time in the world to head into the Liverpool net.
The Reds front line didn’t do much better either. Luis Diaz wasn’t too bad, but Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez were poor.
The Uruguay international struggled to control the ball all evening and fired a shot straight at Jordan Pickford with the entire goal to aim at.
Save for teeing up his attacking teammates on a few occasions, Nunez didn’t really do anything else of note on the night.
Wayne Rooney, speaking on Sky Sports after the game (24/4/24, 10:35pm), shared what he feels the 24-year-old should be doing on the training ground.
What has Wayne Rooney said about Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez?
When asked by Jamie Carragher how Nunez could improve, Rooney replied: “It’s practice, repetition, it’s almost like you train your brain.
“Once you get into these areas in training, it becomes more natural and you keep finishing.
“We have talked before about the players at the end of training sessions, you see them 25 yards out taking shots at goal.
“If you are a number 9, your finishing should be from six yards to 12 yards.”
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Nunez has been afforded a lot of time at Liverpool, but he’s still nowhere near the finished product.
Even if you write off his maiden season at Anfield due to acclimatising to life in England and in the Premier League, and appreciate his role as ‘agent of chaos’, his finishing is simply not good enough.
Nunez is still quite young and he has come a fairly long way over the past 12 months, so let’s hope that the next manager can fine-tune his training and get him converting the simple chances.