A new £85 million Liverpool acquisition Darwin Nez has already demonstrated his ability to succeed with a winger in the Liverpool mold, and the Reds’ recruitment team is well aware of this.
Jordan Henderson, the captain for Liverpool, directed Trent Alexander-throw-in Arnold’s into Luis Dáz’s path early in the second half of their match against RB Leipzig on Thursday.
Goalkeeper Janis Blaswich was second to the ball and took Díaz out, leaving the referee no choice but to point to the spot.
Designated penalty taker Mohamed Salah was out there but he opted to defer his duties to new signing Darwin Núñez, enabling him to score a morale-boosting goal.
You could argue Salah may not have been so generous in a Premier League game when he’s hunting for individual accolades, but this act of selflessness should foster a strong relationship between the new teammates at the outset.
On the face of it, the dynamic is intriguing. With Salah established as the team’s leading goalscorer and shot-taker, how much disruption might the arrival of Núñez cause?
Fortunately, the Egyptian has already shown that he can be devastatingly effective alongside a ‘traditional’ number nine in Edin Džeko at Roma, as Liverpool.com previously outlined here.
And Liverpool will no doubt be aware of Núñez’s partnership with the right winger Rafa Silva at Benfica. Indeed, had Rafa been a few years younger (he turned 29 in May), Liverpool would have pursued him too, according to The Athletic.
In the eyes of the club’s recruitment team, then, Núñez has already demonstrated that he can thrive in tandem with a ‘Liverpool-style’ winger.
And the numbers attest to it. In two seasons at the Estádio da Luz, Núñez and Rafa combined for 10 goals. For context, that’s as many as Andy Robertson and Salah have managed over a much longer period.
One of those goals actually came against Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final in April. Rafa swung in a low cross from the right flank, and Núñez capitalized at the back post after Ibrahima Konaté failed to clear.
But that effort wasn’t particularly representative. In fact, of Rafa’s nine assists for the Uruguayan, this was the only cross from a wide area. He did tee up for a header for Núñez against Lech Poznań in October 2020, but that was from the edge of the six-yard box.
More often, Rafa would make a run in behind down his side, and then coolly square the ball to Núñez. This seems like it could be an effective tactic for Liverpool, either in transition or against the few sides who would be bold enough to leave the Reds that kind of space.
You could imagine Trent Alexander-Arnold or Joël Matip fashioning the situation, and then it would come down to Salah’s willingness to square the ball. That’s probably going to be dependent on the state of the game.
Another common feature was Rafa coming off the right into a more central position before working the ball to Núñez. There was one particularly impressive piece of play in a 2-1 win over Portimonense in December 2020, when Rafa, 30 yards from goal and almost level with the penalty spot, received a line-breaking pass, flicking it to Luca Waldschmidt with his first touch, peeled off to the left to receive the return ball, and then slid it across to Núñez for an easy finish.
It was a goal that spoke to the understanding between the two players. They made diagonal runs in opposite directions, and it led to the simplest of chances.
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