Michael Owen has argued that Darwin Nunez has areas of his game he should have been coached “when he was 10,” separating him from “the world’s elite.”
As a club-record signing Nunez’s record of 39 goals in 132 games for Liverpool – one every 182 minutes – is far from what was hoped upon his move from Benfica in 2022.
But it is his all-round game that frustrates most, with Owen summing up his issues in quotes carried by the Liverpool Echo.
“It’s frustrating because you see parts of his game that you just think, wow, that’s just incredible,” Owen explained.
“But then you see parts of his game that you think, wow, that should have been taught to you when he was 10 or 12. That’s the strange thing about his game.”
Owen added: “I was 50/50 over whether he was going to be an incredible player or someone who is always going to be a frustrating player who could do more.
“There’s a very good player, of course, but not somebody that’s going to now be ranked among the world’s elite strikers.”
There had long been a belief that, when things clicked, Nunez would develop into a world-class striker for Liverpool, but now at the business end of his third season that appears a false dawn.
Instead, as Owen puts it, with the Uruguayan it is more likely “what you see is what you get.”
“He does things that you can’t teach people and then he doesn’t do things that should be very teachable,” he continued.
“My assessment now is that what you see is what you get.
“I’ve been open-minded for a good while thinking this kid could be developing into something incredible. Now I don’t think that will be the case.
“He is a very good player, a big asset for Liverpool, but I just think what you see is what you get now.”
While Owen is not held in the highest regard at Anfield due to his career choices after leaving in 2004, he is still considered one of the club’s best-ever strikers.
That is reinforced by his status as Liverpool’s ninth-highest goalscorer of all time with 158 in 297 appearances, along with 40 in 89 games for England.
When he gives his opinion on a striker, it is worth listening, and Owen’s verdict on Nunez at Liverpool is certainly accurate.
Nunez is a player capable of the sublime, but also one who struggles with simple finishes and has been caught offside at a higher rate than any other Liverpool player since joining the club.
He is widely believed to be playing out his final months at Liverpool as, after two failed bids from Al-Nassr in January, the striker is expected to leave in the summer.
This comes having lost his place in the starting lineup to Luis Diaz and with Arne Slot critical of his lack of work rate in recent games against Wolves and Aston Villa.
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