Paul Merson has suggested that Darwin Núñez’s arrival at Liverpool has had a negative impact on Mo Salah’s performance.
The Egyptian king has been recognized as one of the best players in the world in recent seasons with his incredible scoring record and consistency levels for the Reds.
With Nunez signing for £64m this summer, Jurgen Klopp’s side now operate regularly with a full forward for the first time since the German’s arrival in 2015 and Merson believes it has resulted in a “problem” for the former Borussia. Dortmund boss.
“Liverpool was at its best when Salah could make his runs inside,” he told Sportskeeda (via Rousing The Kop). “The problem now is that he can’t do that anymore with Nunez taking up that space up front and he might need to change his game.
“Klopp did not foresee this problem and he will have to find a way around it, it is just a small problem for the side.”
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Our new No. 27 scored his second goal in as many games for the Reds at Ibrox on Wednesday night and when Mo Salah entered the fray in the second half, the Egyptian king scored a six-minute hat-trick to silence his skeptical
Although we can understand where Merson is coming from and many Liverpool supporters have claimed that our No. 11 is operating much more than usual recently, we believe it is only a matter of time before Nunez is firing on all cylinders and all of his team-mates are on the same wavelength.
I would have every right to suggest that we are experiencing greater problems defensively than offensively as we are scoring regularly – we have failed to score just once this season and that was during the goalless Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. in early September.
Klopp has a selection dilemma at the top of the pitch for Sunday’s big clash with Manchester City.
Bobby Firmino and Núñez started at Ibrox and impressed while Diogo Jota and Salah were introduced from the bench and made a sensational impression.
It will be interesting to see which starting XI the German tactician opts for against the Citizens at the weekend. We’ll have to wait and see!
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