However, while Nunez was inevitably made the scapegoat for a fortuitous 1-1 draw with a newly promoted team – he’s been targeted by trolls since his very first appearance for Liverpool in a friendly against United last summer – there were bigger flaws on show at Kenilworth Road than the forward’s wayward finishing.
Structurally, Liverpool still don’t look quite right – not with Alexis Mac Allister, a technically gifted and industrious attacking midfielder still being deployed in front of a back four that remains worryingly vulnerable to counterattacks.
As Carragher pointed out on Sky Sports, the resurgent Reds still look two players shy of a title challenge: a specialist No.6 and a versatile defender capable of covering for Trent Alexander-Arnold when the full-back goes roaming, either down the flank or into central areas.
Furthermore, Liverpool don’t technically need a prolific No.9 – they certainly didn’t have one during their most recent spell of sustained success, when Roberto Firmino’s primary task, as he admits himself in the book he released this week, was to bring the best out of the two prolific wingers either side of him, Salah and Sadio Mane.
And Klopp was quick to point out after the Luton game that Darwin is much more in tune with his team-mates this term. “What makes him really different,” the manager told reporters, “is that he’s involved in pretty much everything, so that’s good.”
Nunez admitted himself in February that he had yet to perform like the player that had tormented Liverpool’s defenders in a Champions League tie last year, the player that Klopp had fallen “in love” with. But we have certainly seen more and more flashes of his Benfica brilliance in the past few months.
Nonetheless, there’s no getting away from the fact that he cannot continue missing open goals if he is to remain Liverpool’s No.9 for a significant period of time. Such chances can so often be the difference between one point and three, thus making them vital to teams with title aspirations – which is precisely what Liverpool are again.
In that sense, the new, improved Nunez is still not quite good enough. He simply does not convert enough chances (a paltry 12.5 percent in the Premier League this season) – or ‘big chances’ (23%) – to be mentioned in the same breath as proven Premier League goalscorers such as Haaland, Son Heung-min and Salah, or even his rivals for a starting spot, Jota and Gakpo.
On the plus side, Daniel Sturridge, unlike Jose Enrique, is adamant that Nunez, even at 24, can still improve his finishing. “He just needs to be coached,” the former Liverpool striker said on Sky Sports. “He needs to do training sessions where he’s making those runs at pace and practising particular types of finishes when he’s doing it at match tempo, because it does seem like he’s not composed or relaxing.”
It’s definitely an issue, one that Klopp has raised with Nunez himself. Time and time again last season, the manager impressed upon the fiery forward to cool down, to work on his composure, particularly in front of goal. The dream was to help Nunez attain Haaland’s Zen-like state when shooting, so there’s quite clearly still plenty of work to be done on that front.
But progress has been made. Nunez obviously remains worryingly raw, as Michael Owen has been at pains to point out, but the world-class potential is more obvious than ever before. He’s presently well on track to better last season’s goals and assists tallies, and could well become the “nightmare for defenders” that Sturridge enjoys watching.
But can Klopp really calm Captain Chaos? It’s appropriately impossible to predict. There is still only one certainty when it comes to the Premier League’s most compelling character: more entertainment – both for his adoring fans and his harshest critics.
