Game Changer

Where to begin?

Perhaps with Liverpool’s most maligned player of recent weeks and my – and I cannot imagine not your – man-of-the-match, Darwin Nunez. Here we have a player who has been scrutinized to a degree only befitting his status as the Reds’ priciest acquisition ever, and who has been a mixed bag so far. Let’s be clear about this; the only reason he has been questioned so heavily is that he was so expensive. You spend like that on someone, you create expectations. Oh, and there’s the other reason. Its name is Erling Haaland, who was brought in to City at the same time, and due to the nature of today’s media, both of them ended up being compared from the get-go.

Somewhat unfair to the Uruguayan, who was a lot rougher coming in, and still has plenty of room to improve. But life isn’t fair, and so here we are. How best, then, to answer your critics?

Why, come in for the last 15 minutes in a must-win away game against a team who has the by-far highest shot conversion rate in the league, with a shocking goalless scoreline even in the face of an accumulated 50 attempts or so between the two sides, build up panic in the opposition defensive unit, wait until extra time, and THEN hit not once, but twice.

Oh, that slick, composed(!) classic center forward’s brace(!!) from Nunez is going to be remembered by us fans.

Forever.

Or maybe I should share with you that for us viewers in the US of A, the stream cut out quite literally as Nunez’ first hit the back of the net. Then it stayed out for several minutes. By the time everyone knew he nabbed a second, I finally got to watch replays of his first. Peacock, there’s no polite way to say it: fuck off. Your performance was as poor as Darwin’s was brilliant.

Then there was Alisson. My gawd, how good is he when we need him? His assurance and series of stops during the period in the last 15 when the game opened up and the Bees had the momentum were downright regal. And then there was the one where he pawed the ball out of the net with the kind of instinctive reaction I’ve never seen on anyone but that one squirrel in our backyard who loves to torment our dogs. Had that ball gone in, as it likely should have, I would be writing a very different column right now.

There is also one key element that means a lot to our game. Liverpool, as Arne Slot was quick to point out in a presser, has been severely lacking in the “goals at the gasp” department. We just haven’t been scoring much in the last few minutes. This is partially true simply due to the Reds tending to be ahead at those stages and doing a better job at game management than in recent years, but it’s good to know that we still can put ‘em in when we need ‘em.

Another improvement was simply in that Konate had shaken off the rust. He was much better today, and if this means he’s about to regain his early season’s form, then Liverpool fans will – indeed, must – rejoice. Recall that when he was fully fit and playing his best with (immense today) Van Dijk, Liverpool had the best defense in the league by a stretch. If we are truly about to add that back to our game, then the title will be ours…with a few games to spare.

Still, I must discuss the key issue of January transfers. The game today showed one area where Liverpool are absolutely, desperately begging for improvement. We cannot have 16 corners against Brentford and have fuckall to show from it. Really, that’s inexcusable. And so, FSG…

…can we pretty please with sugar on top bring in Arsenal’s set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover?