In a recent piece for The Athletic, Premier League great Alan Shearer spoke about Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez’s first season in English football. The Uruguayan has faced some scrutiny from critics despite registering 10 goals and 3 assists so far this campaign.
Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time top scorer with 260 goals, can speak about the art of goal-scoring with some authority. The Newcastle legend writes in his article that some of the harsh criticism and jeering aimed at him is “grossly unfair” to the 23-year-old, who is still adapting to his first season in the Premier League.
Shearer writes, “It’s easy to forget that Nunez only experienced two seasons of first-division European football before making the move to Liverpool. Before joining Benfica in 2020, his only taste of football outside South America was in Spain’s Segunda Division for Almeria”.
“The point is, he has plenty of time to become the world-class striker that all his attributes suggest he could be and he has plenty of knowledgeable people at Liverpool to help him get there, including the fans who continue to back him.”
“For now, it’s about the training ground, knuckling down, practicing relentlessly, finding comfort in that toil and honing those skills. He’ll get there.”
Its high praise for Nunez, coming from one of the great PL players ever. He should take heart in knowing the likes of Shearer, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have all been full of praise of his relentlessness and hunger to score goals. Nunez will no doubt finish this season with a more than admirable goal return if he continues to score at his current rate.
