Salah at the double and the chaos magic of Darwin Núñez
Liverpool 3 Brentford 0, 12th November 2023.
LIVERPOOL 3 (Salah 39 and 62, Jota 74)
BRENTFORD 0
In the words of Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters “I’ve got another confession to make” and as confession is good for the soul apparently, I’ll do so publicly. When Liverpool signed Darwin Núñez from Benfica in 2022 I wasn’t overly impressed. I’d watched the tall, young Uruguayan striker a number of times before and after he scored against the Reds in the Champions League and felt he always took the easy option of, in the footballing vernacular, “hitting the deck” for cheap free-kicks rather than using his freakish brute strength to tear apart defences. More than a little unfair perhaps, as was my worry that he was some considerable time away from being the “finished article” of a striker who scored a bagful of goals of every persuasion and flavour as well as doing the hardest yards of all, defending from the front. Clearly a season with Roberto Firmino helped in this regard, as has the bear hugs and cajoling of Reds boss Jürgen Klopp who always admitted the gangly striker was a rough diamond and a work in progress. In my high line of a defence my opinion soon softened as my rash first impressions were quickly proven false and he vaulted into my affections long before he inherited the vaunted number 9 shirt from the departing Firmino and not due to his mercurial ability to score incredibly difficult goals and often soon after fluffing his lines with far easier chances. But a season shadowing Firmino and an even longer period in the presence of Klopp has seen him already mature into a force of nature that I demand lead Liverpool’s front line every game as, quite frankly, chaos magic surrounds the 24 year old from Artigas in Uruguay and from this magic, a star has been well and truly born.
In today’s rather straight forward 3–0 home victory that sees the Reds enter yet another international break just a point behind defending Premier League Champions Manchester City, Núñez was the central heartbeat to a dominating first half performance that should have seen Liverpool enter half-time with more than a single goal advantage to show for their efforts. The Uruguayan twice had the ball in the net before Mo Salah eventually gave the Reds the lead on 39 minutes. Both disallowed goals, on 21 and 27 minutes were chalked off due to offside, first by the length of a football boot the second more far more clearly, with the second a beautiful overhead kick that sailed into the corner of the Brentford net. But he was a constant menace, a central focal point of both attack and a nagging defence from the front as well as forcing “Bees” goalkeeper Mark Flekken into sharp near post saves that book-ended a fine first 45 minutes from the Reds. Then, with time running out on a first half that should have seen Liverpool enter half-time with a 2 or 3 goal margin of superiority, that chaos magic surfaced following a fine tackle near the halfway line from Joël Matip. With the ball quickly cycled from Dominik Szoboszlai to Trent Alexander-Arnold, his incisive pass forward found Núñez who with an instant control and deft inside pass found Mo Salah, and the Egyptian King did the rest.
My self-published book on Liverpool FC
Following the Reds defeat in France on Thursday and last Sunday’s draw at newly promoted Luton Town, the reactionary world of social media seemed determined to point at a mini-crisis at Liverpool which is of course laughable and emblematic of the Reds 21st Century support within the madhouse of online keyboard footballing tacticians. Thankfully Mo Salah’s second goal of the game was soon followed by a beautiful long range drive from a free scoring Diogo Jota and the 3 points for a Premier League victory were assured.
Although Núñez failed to register a goal that wasn’t disallowed his chaos magic grows stronger by the game, Kostas Tsimikas put a dreadful display in France on Thursday behind him with two assists today, Dominik Szoboszlai continues to greatly impress, Wataru Endō was neat and tidy in midfield and when his goal was rarely threatened, Alisson Becker repelled any and every visiting attack to rack up yet another clean sheet for the greatest goalkeeper in the world.
Second in the Premier League after 12 games played and the only defeat inflicted by a VAR system that should be encased in 5 miles of concrete, dumped into the world’s deepest ocean and treated as hazardous waste forever more, the Reds are way ahead on my seasonal record and in a season of transition and evolution. I have long beseeched for patience this season ahead of a real assault in the two seasons to come. I see this season as a “free pass” all round considering the mid-season mess of last season and an underwhelming Summer of huge upheaval and a manager preaching evolution rather than a disruptive revolution.
The Reds are ahead of schedule, they have a number 9 shrouded in chaos magic, and there will be glory around the fields of Anfield Road in a near footballing future.
A final word from The Boss
“All the moments when we could keep the ball on the ground, when we could play football, when Darwin connected the game for us exceptionally, it was super-dangerous for them. We scored wonderful goals, to be honest, and it was a real good performance against one of the most difficult opponents you can face”.
“What is really important is we have the points tally similar to other teams because we obviously didn’t play perfect football yet, not even close. We fight our way through, we’ve had good moments, less-good moments. We showed today, it’s all fine, but in the end you have to keep going with all the other teams until March or April or whatever. If we are still there then we can start talking, but until then you fight your way through the most difficult league in the world”.
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