FOOTBALL: Darwin Núñez Has Been Majorly Criticised For His Performance Against Crystal Palace

Darwin Núñez has been majorly criticised for his performance against Crystal Palace in the pre-season friendly in Singapore, yet Liverpool know the reality

One would expect a match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace in a pre-season friendly played on the other side of the world not to mean very much to most people. After all, it is just a pre-season friendly: a chance for players to get some minutes into their legs and to work on fitness. The result matters little; the name of the game is fitness.

Yet judging by the comments that arrived online in the aftermath of the game, you’d think that Liverpool and Palace were contesting the FA Cup final, or some other match of importance, such was some of the vitriol directed Darwin Núñez’s way.

Darwin Núñez Has Been Majorly Criticised For His Performance Against Crystal Palace. The Uruguayan didn’t have the best of games, it must be said. Brought on at the beginning of the second half, Núñez and produced a fairly clumsy performance. Yet these kind of games can happen, when things don’t come off — especially in intense heat and humidity, after several intense training sessions.

Fans of Liverpool’s rival clubs took to Twitter to mock Núñez, with compilation videos already doing the rounds of his various mis-hits, mis-controls and fresh air shots. One video gained some 1.3m views on Twitter within a matter of hours after being posted. 1.3m!

Seemingly, these people forgot that it was a pre-season friendly, in July, in Singapore. Yet somehow, if one were to judge his performance, which amounted to just 45 minutes of action, people would think Liverpool had re-signed Andy Carroll.

The yearning to see Núñez fail, already, is off the scale. Yet just to reiterate, it was a pre-season friendly, in Singapore, In July.

Núñez has been training with Liverpool and his new teammates for less than a week, so it’s only natural that the bedding in process would take time. Not all players hit the ground running like Luis Díaz, who played like he’d been part of the Liverpool set-up for years in the second half of last season.

Núñez is still only 23, and patience is very much needed in regards to learning how to fit into Jürgen Klopp’s system and what the German coach wants from him. Moreover, it’s going to take his teammates time to understand his movement and what he wants from them. It’s a two-pronged approach.

The whole point of pre-season training, aside from fitness, is to get new signings to acclimatise to their new surroundings as soon as possible, and with several more weeks left before the Premier League season begins, Núñez will have the time to adjust.

And once he gets going, Núñez will offer the kind of aerial physicality and off-the-ball movement that Liverpool haven’t had in a centre forward for a long time. Núñez’s height will make him a menace at corners and set pieces, once the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson understand his movement, the pair will rain down crosses for Núñez.

Núñez’s tweet (above) was seemingly a response to the criticism, and the best way of shutting that down is to keep working hard. ‘Resiliencia’ is something he is going to need with the scrutiny that comes with playing for the Reds.

It is excessive to the tenth degree, and it’s because of how much Liverpool paid for him. But the goals will come, as will the performances. And one more time, it’s worth remembering that his bad performance came in a pre-season friendly, in Singapore, in July.

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