‘Frantic’: Gary Neville delivers honest verdict on Liverpool player who must ‘slow himself down’

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Gary Neville thinks Darwin Nunez is ‘frantic’ after the Liverpool striker had some mixed moments against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.

Liverpool were hoping for a rousing win over City after a disappointing start to the Premier League season.

That’s exactly what happened as Anfield roared Liverpool onto a memorable victory against Pep Guardiola’s title favourites.

Mohamed Salah scored the only goal of the game, turning Joao Cancelo beautifully before slotting past Ederson for a 1-0 Liverpool victory.

Gary Neville thinks Darwin Nunez is ‘frantic’

This was a full-blooded, back-and-forth contest which, in truth, could have gone either way.

There were chances for Liverpool to wrap up the win late on and substitute Darwin Nunez was heavily involved in a couple of them.

Nunez may have felt a little hard done by having been named on the bench against City despite two goals in two games.

The Uruguayan summer signing from Benfica did come on to try and help Liverpool secure the win but with mixed results.

Nunez was leading a three-on-one for Liverpool as they broke at pace, with Salah wide open on the right side.

Nunez had his head down and drove a shot straight against a City defender rather than play the easy pass to Salah.

Another break saw Nunez ignore a pull-back to Fabio Carvalho and instead try a more difficult pass into Trent Alexander-Arnold at the back post, which almost came off.

The decision not to pass to Salah in that first instance really baffled many and Gary Neville admitted on Sky Sports (16/10, 87min) that it was ‘not good’ from Nunez.

Neville felt that it just wasn’t good enough whether Nunez saw Salah or not, and noted that the striker just appears ‘frantic’ in the final third.

Neville believes that Nunez needs to slow down and compose himself rather than rush his decisions if Liverpool are really going to see the best from him.

“It’s not good from Nunez,” said Neville. “If he sees him, he should pass it, it’s not good. If he doesn’t see him, it’s not good because he’s not got his head up – he had to play that pass to Mo Salah.”

“He’s just a little frantic and raw when he plays, he’s just got to slow himself down a little bit in the final third and be a bit more composed,” he added.