Many Liverpool supporters love Darwin Nunez after his positive start on Merseyside, but one former Red has taken some rather scathing criticism of the striker, following his World Cup performances.
Speaking about the accused stamp that occurred during Uruguay’s game with Ghana, Ronnie Whelan spoke to Football Insider and said: “It’s disgraceful of Nunez, he’s dishonest and completely blatant, he’s not even trying to hide what he’s doing.
“I would like to see officials make an example of players who are caught cheating red-handed, and give them red cards. Going to 10 men and getting kicked out might make them think twice.
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“You can see that they are clearly willing to risk a yellow to give their team some kind of advantage.
“Núñez has a horrible side to him. He is a brilliant player, although we have not seen the best of him in the World Cup, but he has a nasty advantage in his game.
“Klopp and the Liverpool managers are going to have a hard time controlling him and preventing him from getting stupid yellows and reds.
“He’s off duty sometimes, and that smugness is a problem. I expect him to get some red cards and multiple extended bans in the coming seasons.”
The incident in question is somewhat debated as to whether our number 27 was trying to stomp on the opposing player’s foot or trying to brush the penalty spot and affect Andre Ayew’s chances of scoring his penalty.
Either way, though, they’re certainly not the actions of a jock, so you can expect to get some flak as long as you act in a way that attracts some flak.
There are plenty of our fans who love the chaos that comes with the 23-year-old and while he certainly needs to control himself and focus on the right things, this can give him the edge to be an even better player.
The former Benfica man appeared to be trying to affect the opposition’s chances of taking a penalty, but these words from the former Ireland international show that this can still upset a lot of people.
However, the 61-year-old seems a bit over the top in his criticism and it’s strange to suggest that Jurgen Klopp can’t control the striker either, as questioning the German is something most Liverpoolians don’t do.
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