Peter Crouch believes Liverpool will see the ‘real Darwin Nunez’ this season after the Uruguayan endured a rollercoaster first campaign in England.
The 24-year-old joined the Reds for an initial £64m from Benfica last summer, which could rise to £85m with add-ons, and finished his first season with 15 goals and four assists from 42 appearances. However, despite scoring in his first two appearances for the club, a red card on his Anfield debut against Crystal Palace for a headbutt on Joachim Anderson was a sign of his up and down fortunes to follow.
Hot and cold in front of goal, the striker suffered a number of niggling injuries, spent a large chunk of the season as a left-winger rather than in his favoured central position, and finished the campaign out of the starting XI. Yet despite facing frequent taunts from rival fans, Nunez still contributed to 19 goals.
While he started this season as a substitute, the Uruguayan scored a memorable match-winning brace off the bench against Newcastle United, before helping create two goals in when handed his first start against Aston Villa.
And while Nunez is an doubt to face Wolves on Saturday after suffering ‘muscle problems’ when away with Uruguay, Crouch has lauded the striker as ‘like a new signing’ for Liverpool and believes the best is still to come.
“The thing with him is obviously he was scoring goals last year,” Crouch said when speaking to a select number of journalists, including the ECHO, courtesy of TNT Sports ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Wolves on Saturday lunchtime.
“But there were times where you felt he did look out of sorts. But this year, he is full of confidence.
“The Newcastle game, when you win games like that in that manner that you did, kind of on your own with finishes that were top class, it’s confidence and he looks like a confidence player.
“Given that opportunity, that year to settle, I think it’s like a new signing almost. And I feel the same with Luis Diaz. There are players there. He was missing last year. He’s an £100m player, isn’t he, let’s be honest. And Liverpool didn’t have him last year.
“I think there is a real feel-good factor to it at the moment around the club. And I’m hoping that that continues.”
He continued: “There was always an element of “Is he right? Will he do it?” What killed him a little bit was coming in the same window as Haaland.
“City and Liverpool are big rivals and it was, “Who was better?” Haaland got off to an incredible start and Nunez was falling foul of that comparison. This year that’s all gone.
“It’s a new season, he’s scoring goals and I think we’ll really see the real Darwin Nunez this season.”
Crouch would suffer similar taunts from opposing fans when making his own £7m move to Liverpool from Southampton in 2005, with the former England striker infamously taking 18 matches to score his first goals for the club.
And while Crouch admits he sees a small comparison between Nunez’s fortunes and his own, he insists the Uruguayan, who is already a firm fan-favourite at Anfield, is in the perfect place to silence his critics once and for all this season.
“I did see a small comparison but I would say that he was ahead of me at that early stage,” he said. “It was similar but he didn’t go 18 games (without scoring) though, I know that.
“He was still scoring goals. There were the odd misses of chances and he felt quite raw at times. I did see a small comparison. But my drought was much longer than his and he did score goals.
“When he was getting a little bit of criticism, perhaps, I think a lot of that criticism was from outside Liverpool and people around the club.
“When you are going through a tough time, as long as you are giving everything and are looking like you are helping to improve the team but might not be scoring, there’s no better place in the world.
“If I was signing anywhere other than Liverpool after they had just won the Champions League and they could have their pick of any strikers and your striker doesn’t score for that amount of time – I don’t think there are many clubs in the world that would stick with you in the manner they did with me.
“And that’s why Nunez is in such a good place to play his football.”
