Football Today
·6 December 2024
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·6 December 2024
Liverpool will travel to Goodison Park to face Everton in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Reds are seven points clear of Chelsea and Arsenal at the top of the table, and they would want to return to winning ways after securing a 3-3 draw in midweek against Newcastle United at St James’ Park.
Arne Slot has said many times that he has inherited a strong squad from Jurgen Klopp, and selecting the starting XI is always a challenge for him.
For this fixture against the Toffees, the Reds boss must make some bold decisions, and one of them should be to drop Darwin Nunez to the bench.
Diogo Jota has returned to training, but he will miss out on the derby clash. Slot still should drop Nunez and start with Cody Gakpo or Luis Diaz up front.
Nunez has been very poor this season, and it seems Slot is at wit’s end as to how he can bring the best out of the Uruguayan striker.
The 25-year-old striker has scored only two goals in the Premier League in 11 appearances, and he appals more than he appeases.
Mark Doyle of Goal.com writes that Nunez must be sold by the club. He may be a cult hero on the Kop, but it is now glaringly evident that he is simply not good enough for a title-challenging side.
Nunez can come up with outrageous goals that look seemingly difficult, but he wastes so many simple opportunities that it proves costly to the team.
Against Newcastle, all Nunez needed to do was a simple tap-in from Cody Gakpo’s header, but he missed it from three yards out.
While Nunez is working incredibly hard in terms of pressing and winning balls, he is still failing to do the basic stuff that is required of a modern-day striker.
He is not making enough runs into the box, not taking his chances properly, and his link-up play has been awful in recent games.
When Jota returns, Nunez is expected to drop to the bench. Against Everton, Slot must show him the place where he belongs right now.