"He just switched off" - Liverpool attacker criticised by Jermaine Jenas for not being alert during win against Wolves

Former Tottenham Hotspur star Jermaine Jenas was not impressed with Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez as he failed to make the most of a chance against Wolves on September 16.

The Reds travelled to Molineux Stadium for their first Premier League match following the international break. After going 1-0 down to Hwang Hee-chan's opener, the Reds hit back with three goals in the second half.

Goals from Cody Gakpo, Andy Robertson, and Hugo Bueno (own goal) earned Jurgen Klopp's side three points.

In the 65th minute, with the game tied at 1-1, second-half substitute Darwin Nunez failed to get on the end of a Joe Gomez cross. In view of this, Jermaine Jenas claimed that the striker was not alert when the ball was fired across the six-yard box.

"This is the one conversation we keep having about Darwin Nunez. Is he a natural goal scorer or not? You would think he’d be there, but he just switched off," Jenas said, as quoted by BBC Sport.

Although the 24-year-old striker failed to find the net in this game, he was instrumental in Liverpool's wins against Aston Villa and Newcastle.

Nunez scored two late goals against the Magpies to earn his 10-men Liverpool side a win from a goal down (2-1) while bagging an assist in their 3-0 victory over the Villans.

So far, the Uruguay international has recorded just one start in five matches. It will be interesting to see whether he can better his nine Premier League goals from last season.

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"We’ll really see the real Darwin Nunez this season"- Former Liverpool star backs the Uruguay international

Darwin Nunez (via Getty Images)

Former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch has backed Darwin Nunez to perform better compared to his first Premier League season. The 24-year-old forward was signed from Benfica last summer for a reported fee of £85 million.

However, things did not quite go according to the plan for the Uruguay international, who scored just nine league goals last year. After the player's performances against Newcastle and Aston Villa this season, Crouch told a few journalists:

"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."

"It’s a new season, he’s scoring goals and I think we’ll really see the real Darwin Nunez this season," he added.

Given Cody Gakpo's poor start to the 2023-24 season, Nunez could start ahead of his Dutch colleague in the coming weeks. Gakpo has netted just one goal after managing four starts.