Thierry Henry believes Darwin Nunez is trying too hard to impress at Liverpool, as he compared the forward to his international team-mate Luis Suarez.
Nunez has had a mixed impact at Liverpool since arriving in the summer for £85m, scoring three goals in the Premier League and another three in Europe, the latest coming in the final seconds off the bench against Napoli.
The 23-year-old missed three matches after picking up a red card for a headbutt on Joachim Andersen, and he has completed the full 90 minutes just twice so far this season.
Assessing Nunez’s start at Liverpool, Henry suggested the Uruguyan is not a natural finisher but has the element of chaos to his game that Suarez also had earlier in his career, something that will refined as his confidence grows.
“I don’t think [Nunez] is a finisher like Robbie Fowler, not a lot of people are finishers like Robbie Fowler in all fairness, but he has goals in him,” Henry told CBS.
“He’s a bit more of a handful. Sometimes he will rush a bit like Alexis Sanchez or a young Luis Suarez when you felt like things were bounding off of him and stuff like that but when you start to master what you’re good at, then you can control it better. And I think that will happen to him. I think he can do that.”
He added: “I think he needs confidence, and the confidence that I’m talking about is when you are at a club and feel like you’re going to play week in and week out, you’re a bit more cold in front of goal,” Henry said.
“Because he wants to please so much and do so much and he wants to wow the Liverpool fans, sometimes he rushes it. He gets the ball and he rushes it instead of controlling, going back on his right foot and finishing clean.
“I went through that. When you arrive as a big signing and just overdo it at times. Coming in after Sadio Mane, that’s not easy to do and you just overdo it instead of being calm, cool and finishing.”