Dharmesh Sheth expects one Liverpool player to get ‘even better’ next season, having had what he feels was a promising campaign at Anfield.
Darwin Nunez, who joined from Benfica for an initial £64m last year (potentially rising to £85m, as per BBC Sport), has come in for criticism this term despite a tally of 15 goals in 42 games so far for the Reds (Transfermarkt).
The Sky Sports reporter has said that the 23-year-old deserves the scope to adapt to a new country and culture, believing that the striker’s bosses won’t be displeased with his scoring return and adding that there could be much more to come from the £140,000-per-week Uruguayan (FBref).
Sheth told GIVEMESPORT: “Yes, they spent a lot of money on him. Would they have wanted a bigger return in the first season? Of course they would have, but will they be disappointed with the return? I’m not entirely sure that they will be, actually.
“If you look at the stats, 19 Premier League starts, he’s got nine goals. He’s got four goals in the Champions League as well.
“New league, new country, new language, it’s easy to underestimate how difficult that can be for a player, coming into a new environment like that. So you’d expect him after a season at Liverpool to be even better.”
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The journalist’s observations about Nunez are very fair, and not just in terms of how challenging it must’ve been for the Uruguay striker – who despite being only 23 is a father to a 16-month-old son – to adjust to living in England while also being under the microscope over the size of his transfer fee.
His 15 goals so far for Liverpool have been scored across 2,365 minutes of game-time (Transfermarkt), averaging one for every 157.67 minutes. That’s actually a better return this season than most other senior forwards at Anfield, as shown by figures from Transfermarkt.
Cody Gakpo has six goals in 1,645 minutes for the Reds (one per 274.17 minutes), while Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz have five each in 1,261 and 1,175 minutes respectively (scoring once every 252.2 and 235 minutes).
Only Mo Salah with 30 goals in 4,028 minutes (one every 134.26 minutes) and Bobby Firmino’s haul of 11 in 1,635 minutes (one per 148.64 minutes) can better Nunez in terms of scoring efficiency among the Reds’ attackers.
Some will point (and may already have done so) that the Uruguayan followed up a 14-goal campaign in his first year at Benfica by netting 34 the season after (Transfermarkt).
If he were to do likewise at Liverpool, it’d be the perfect validation of Sheth’s appraisal and the ideal riposte to anyone who may have foolishly written him off as a big-money flop.