Craig Burley is surprised by claims that Darwin Nunez may struggle to adapt to life at Liverpool and has claimed the Uruguayan ‘has every attribute’ to succeed at Anfield.
The 22-year-old completed his move from Benfica earlier this week and penned a six-year-deal on Merseyside.
The ESPN pundit believes that Nunez is ‘not quite’ at the level of new Manchester City signing Erling Haaland, however.
He told ESPN (via HITC): “I’ve heard a lot of these people who crawl out of the woodwork and say ‘I don’t think he’ll fit in’. This fit-in brigade has sort of popped up and raised its head. Good players generally fit in. He has every attribute – a bit like Haaland to an extent – but not quite at that level. Big, physical and two-footed.”
At 22, Nunez has plenty of development ahead of him, but under the watchful eye of Jurgen Klopp, he’s certainly in safe hands.
He proved that he can perform at the top level last term, netting six times in 10 Champions League outings as well as 26 league goals in 28 games.
Liverpool don’t usually splash the cash, but when we have done in recent years, we’ve done it wisely.
The big-money signings of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker have both proved pivotal in ensuring we’ve tasted huge success and we’re all hoping that Nunez’s arrival is no different.
We haven’t operated with an out-and-out No. 9 for a number of seasons now, so the former Almeria man’s arrival may lead to a slight tactical change from Klopp.
We’re certainly hoping that Nunez can hit the ground running, just like Luis Diaz did when he arrived from Porto in January, but we’ll just have to wait and see.