"There's no progress in him" – Ian Wright delivers grim verdict on Liverpool attacker amid goalscoring woes
Arsenal legend Ian Wright has claimed that Liverpool attacker Darwin Nunez is not training hard enough amid an ongoing poor run of form.
Nunez, who arrived in a £85 million switch from Benfica in 2022, has received a lot of scrutiny of late. The 24-year-old has missed countless chances in his team's last six overall outings, failing to score once.
Speaking on the Wrighty's House podcast, the host said (h/t TBR):
"There was a long debate between [Daniel] Sturridge, [Wayne] Rooney and [Jamie] Carragher about Nunez. Sturridge said that when he was a player he was out there for hours trying to build that form and he'd get a backup keeper and some defenders out to create match conditions to get his form. They were saying whether Nunez has done enough to build that momentum and form."
Lambasting Nunez for his recent below-par outings, Wright pitched in:
"He can't have, his finishing is poor. The chances he was missing at the start of his Liverpool career are the exact same chances he's missing now, and that says to me there's no progress in him and he doesn't seem to be working, like [broadcaster] Flo [Lloyd-Hughes] said, he doesn't seem to be working on himself."
Nunez, whose current contract will expire in June 2028, has scored 18 goals in 50 matches across competitions for Liverpool so far. He has also assisted 13 times in 2,966 minutes of first-team action this term.
A 22-cap Uruguay international, Nunez has missed a staggering 26 big chances in 32 Premier League games this campaign. He has scored 11 goals in the league in 1,985 minutes of action, across 22 starts.
Chris Sutton offers prediction for upcoming West Ham United-Liverpool league match
In his column for BBC, ex-Chelsea forward Chris Sutton backed the Reds to defeat hosts West Ham United in their Premier League contest on Saturday (April 27). He wrote:
"It's hard to back Liverpool because Mohamed Salah is out of form and Darwin Nunez's finishing has been so terrible. I have a feeling the Reds will edge it but, like I say, they are out of the title race now anyway. I'm sad about that, because I don't want Jurgen Klopp's time as Liverpool manager to end like this."
While the Reds are third in the league table with 74 points from 34 matches, David Moyes' side are eighth with 48 points from 34 games.
As for the head-to-head record, the Merseyside outfit have registered 13 wins and just one loss in their past 16 games against West Ham.