Gary Neville has praised Darwin Nunez for his performance against Arsenal on Sunday but raised the alarm bell when it came to Liverpool's 'physical drop-off'.
Nunez has struggled to make an impact since moving to Anfield from Benfica in the summer but the Uruguayan was on the mark in north London on Sunday, bravely bundling home a low cross from Luis Diaz to pull the sides level in 34th minute.
Mikel Arteta's side would eventually go on to win the contest 3-2 but having come in for some criticism since joining the Reds, Sky Sports pundit Neville was keen to apportion praise Nunez on only his third Premier League start of the season.
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Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast after the match, the ex-Manchester United and England defender said: "I thought he (Nunez) was really good even in the difficult parts of the game, for Liverpool he was the best player. His runs were good, Liverpool needed a centre-forward, with (Sadio) Mane leaving. (Roberto) Firmino, obviously people watching him far more than I do saying he’s the one maybe that’s dropping off a little bit, so they had to revitalise that front three. We know (Diogo) Jota and (Luis) Diaz came in last season but they needed a centre-forward.
"That sending off against Crystal Palace rocked him (Nunez), no doubt, but I thought there were good signs from Nunez, he looked a real handful up there, making good runs in behind and pressing, but something’s missing."
Nunez was forced to miss three matches after he was sent off on his Anfield debut against Palace at the start of the season. Having also scored on his Premier League debut at Fulham, he now has two Liverpool league goals to his name.
Neville was less complimentary about the Reds as a whole, though, and questioned where the team's energy has gone - a hallmark of Jurgen Klopp's managerial style.
Neville continued: "I know Liverpool fans are saying it’s the midfield, they’re having to play four up front now to compensate for the fact they haven’t got that energy in midfield anymore to get the press on but that press fell away. Jurgen Klopp’s journey has been; frantic, heavy metal, almost like, ‘what’s going on?’, to a measured, brilliant team in and out of possession where they’d pick times to press, but became a far better team on the ball in possession, to now they actually want to play slowly and not do the other bit.
"They’ve almost gone from a transition of frantic, frantic to composed football to the other side of it which is composed football, but they don’t want the frantic bit anymore. They need to get that frantic bit back. That’s what everyone really falls in love with with Jurgen Klopp’s teams."
The defeat at the Emirates stadium leaves the Reds with a poor record from the first eight league games, with just two wins, four draws and now two losses. They will travel to Glasgow on Wednesday to face Rangers in the Champions League, before hosting champions Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday in the Premier League.
Whereas Neville was not prepared to write Liverpool's season off, he has plenty of concerns over the direction that Klopp's team are heading in.
Neville added: "Now I’m seeing the physical drop in Jurgen Klopp’s team which means they just become a team that’s almost a shadow of what they were. And that’s not writing them off because they could come back and have a brilliant week but they’ve got Rangers and Manchester City. This Liverpool team could easily go and win those two matches, there’s a lot more life in these players - Jurgen Klopp’s players - but there were some signs second half that I thought, ‘not sure’.
"Nunez wasn’t the problem today. There were other areas in the team that I thought a physical drop off was the biggest problem to me and Arsenal looking better, stronger, fitter, younger - they looked better. They looked like a team that’s going like that [up] and Liverpool look a team that’s going on the way down, simple as that second half. I don’t believe this is the end of Liverpool, that’s not the case, but it looked a struggle physically for them compared to Arsenal."
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