Núñez the late, late London hero for Liverpool!
Brentford 0 Liverpool 2, 18th January 2025
BRENTFORD 0
LIVERPOOL 2 (Núñez 90+1 and 90+3)
As I rarely, if ever swear in these Liverpool journals, please excuse the following sentence and then I’ll compose myself…
Darwin Núñez — You little fucking dancer!
After failing to trouble Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels for 65 minutes on Tuesday, today the Reds were far quicker and sharper out of the traps in a first half they almost entirely dominated racking up 9 corners and entering over double figures in terms of shots on or off target, forcing Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken to deny Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch, this latter save on 17 minutes the best of the bunch, and when beaten by a fizzing long range drive from Dominik Szoboszlai on 34 minutes, the crossbar came to his rescue. Although the second half was a more even affair and Bryan Mbeumo a constant threat on the Brentford right-hand side, the Reds still shaded a second period of play as 9 corners became 16 by full-time and the double figure tally of first half shots on the Brentford goal became a quite astonishing 37, the last 2 of which breached the home team’s rearguard and Darwin Núñez ripped his shirt off in sheer delight as he ran screaming towards the hordes of Liverpool fans in the Away End who soon filled the London air with songs of victory, and of winning the Premier League.
The goal(s) were coming but as we all know, they are never guaranteed. What is a cast iron certainty is that chaos magic surrounds the 25 year old Uruguayan in the famed number 9 shirt of Liverpool and despite his foibles and frailties and the constant decrying of his abilities by the Children of the Matrix in the supposed Reds online fanbase, Darwin Núñez LOVES playing for Liverpool Football Club and that’ll do for me. For transparency, I doubted the wisdom of his signing in his earliest days but that was long ago and way before I learned to love the enthusiasm and whole hearted effort he combines with the intangible chaos that surrounds him. He’s a big kid with a big heart and wears the number 9 shirt of Liverpool with pride and footballing desire and that’ll do for me, as will Brentford’s manager Thomas Frank and his post-game description of the Reds as “the best team in the world”. Debatable and subjective of course, but what isn’t up for debate is that Arsenal comically threw away a 2 goal lead at home to Aston Villa to draw 2–2, signalling a cascade of boos ringing around their Emirates Stadium home but rather more importantly and constantly lost in the fug of games of football every three or four days, is that Arne Slot’s Liverpool are 6 points clear at the top of the Premier League and with a game in hand too and, lest everyone constantly forget, the Dutchman has only been in the job for a little over 6 months.
Perhaps we’re not allowed to ruminate on such a magnificent achievement in today’s every quickening world of children crying for clickbait, but this is beyond remarkable.
Thanks Boss, and thanks Darwin, you bloody madman!
Arne’s Afterword
“If we would not have scored today in the last five minutes then the headlines would have been Liverpool drops points again and no-one would have told you 37 shots on target. What a display. How many teams were able against Brentford to have 37 shots on target during a game? And now because of us scoring two, there is probably a bit of emphasis on that fact as well. So, this is the industry we work in. As a manager, the team, the players, we all accept this and we all understand that there is a lot of focus on if it doesn’t go well and not as much on the fact if you have a great performance. We are in an industry where it’s about winning and losing — and not about if you play beautiful football. People only enjoy good football, beautiful football if you win. And otherwise, there’s no focus at all on the performance”.
“Because we are in an industry that’s only talking about the results… as a manager I told the players during this week again I couldn’t have asked for more in the Forest game — only one counter-attack conceded and so many chances created against a team that hardly ever concedes any chance at all in their games. Brentford has never faced this season, I am 99.9 per cent sure, 37 shots in a game, so what can I ask more of our players?”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on every Liverpool game and in recent seasons, with the addition of numerous pieces of retro writing on Reds games of the past, I’ve curated and created the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two recently self-published books. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to.
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Rachael read your piece and texted me
I liked it
It was fun
R says in response to your post: ha ha exactly!!