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A punchline of a different sort. Darwin Nunez hasn’t had the most enjoyable season so far, to the point his performances have been met with some derision, but on Saturday enjoyed his best day at Liverpool for over a year. Or, perhaps, his best few minutes.
This trip to Brentford was an occasion when his team needed goals, and especially a match-winning stoppage-time double like this, almost more than Nunez himself. As the board went up to show a mere four minutes remaining, the 0-0 scoreline was about to bring Liverpool’s fifth draw in eight games. It would have only invigorated second-place Arsenal, who were starting against Aston Villa immediately afterwards.
The entire mood instead duly turned on Nunez’s pivot. At 91 minutes, with the ball finally breaking the right way for Liverpool in the Brentford box, Trent Alexander-Arnold clipped in a low cross for the striker to swivel and finish with power. Moments later, he doubled his tally for the game and that of the entire league campaign, by turning and smashing in another. It was quite a moment for his first goals in a month, and just his third and fourth in the league overall, as Liverpool claimed a 2-0 victory at what Arne Slot described as one of the hardest away trips in the Premier League.
The Dutch coach did make a point of stating his team had subjected Brentford to one of their own toughest experiences, as there won’t be too many occasions when they face 37 shots. One of those efforts was an absurdly wayward Nunez header, of the type that looks a visible example of a striker struggling for confidence and has caused rolled eyes in Liverpool’s support.
It’s why the Uruguayan displayed a steel, and admirable perseverance. You wouldn’t have guessed he has endured such an unproductive period from the manner he took both goals.
Slot then showed a steel of his own in both defending and praising his player, as well as his team’s form. The Liverpool manager first disagreed with the phrasing of questions that portrayed a “disappointing season” for Nunez, insisting it has just been a case of much more competition for places in a team that is top of the league.
The performances that have put them there were also why Slot bristled at suggestions that a fifth draw in eighth would have raised new questions about his side, just as the pressure ramps up. Slot pointed to the number of shots and the high xG they are producing – this was 4.25 by one measure – as he stated that “nothing has changed between now and the first part of the season”. In other words, they aren’t letting up. There’s no “pressure” getting to them.
Slot hinted the difference was more circumstantial, and that opposition are now setting up in a different way given they have all – bar Everton – played Liverpool once.
“What is different is teams defending on us, they throw themselves in front of everything, and many are in a low block.”
Liverpool have consequently had to display exactly the kind of perseverance shown by Nunez here. Slot’s delivery of these points was itself interesting. He has almost exclusively cut a jocular character during his short time in England so far, even when presented with questions that could otherwise trip a manager up. Sometimes, it’s actually been difficult to square the affability of his personality with some of Liverpool’s most intense attacking displays. This little vignette, where he assertively stressed a few points, was a hint as to how. This is what Nunez has to live up to.
It is also why Slot might take issue with Thomas Frank’s take of the key 91st-minute first goal, and how it “fell” for Liverpool. Alexander-Arnold’s attempt at a cross was initially blocked by Yehor Yarmoliuk only for the diverted ball to allow an immediate cross inside.
“If Trent has to take a touch, maybe we re-adjust,” Frank said. “That’s a sign of how it’s going for them.”
Slot would doubtless point to how they’ve had to toil through the defending he faced, as he admitted he thought he “was watching the same game, again and again, the same patterns”.
“If we dropped points today, everybody would have said Liverpool have dropped points again. Not Liverpool has 37 shots.”
For Frank’s part, that commentary was in the context of the most effusive praise possible for Slot’s side. The Brentford boss described them as “the best team in the Premier League” and “probably the best team in the world”. Frank put that down to how they are “a level above the others right now, more complete in all phases of the game”.
This is where someone like Nunez, for all his rough edges and rawness, actually rounds Liverpool out nicely.
He offers something very different. He wasn’t the only sub to seal victory, of course, since Slot went out of his way to praise Harvey Elliott’s influence. Even Frank had commented, however, on how Liverpool’s starting attack had seen Luis Diaz consistently drift wide. Nunez offered a more typical focal point, and that against a physically imposing Brentford structure.
That’s where the real “meaning” of this win might be, beyond what victory does for the title race. One obvious difference between Liverpool and Arsenal right now is that Slot has more depth and variety of options in attack.
Nunez might have occasionally become a lampooned figure, but no one other than Liverpool fans is laughing after interventions like that. Outsiders may similarly point to the fact he’s a £60m-plus signing, but that isn’t his fault. And here, he displayed a laudable attitude to overcoming his own errors.
It might end up one a significant win in the title race. That’s something else that changes around this time. A performance isn’t just a performance any more, a win not just a win. Everything is put in the context of the more emotionally charged atmosphere of a title race, with everyone imposing meaning from that.
This came down to one man, who more than had the last laugh.
