Liverpool dealt CRUEL Darwin Nunez blow

Darwin Nunez had one of his more interesting cameos in today’s game against Manchester United.

He’s been in and out of the team all season, with both Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz being preferred to him in the cente-forward position but Arne Slot’s favour for rotation meaning he has still found significant game time.

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He lost scored in the league against Aston Villa at the start of November but also added a goal in the 2-1 win over Southampton in the League Cup quarter-final a few weeks ago.

Yet one of his most notorious traits is his ill-discipline and that has come back to bite him today.

He received his fifth yellow card of the league season despite being on the pitch for only half an hour, meaning he will miss Liverpool’s next league game - away to Nottingham Forest on 14th January.

Nunez causes his own problems

A hard challenge on Matthijs de Ligt necessitated the caution on the 78th minute.

Yellow card suspensions do not carry over to cup competitions, meaning he will be able to feature in the League Cup semi-final against Tottenham on Wednesday and the FA Cup third round tie against League Two side Accrington Stanley next weekend.

Nunez would almost certainly not have started against Forest due to the timing of the cup competitions, which he is seemingly more likely to feature in.

As a result, there is a legitimate chance we see him getting back-to-back starts in both of those matches.

The Nottingham Forest game will be weighing heavily on head coach Arne Slot's mind given that they were the only team to defeat him in any competition in 2024 - with both Liverpool and Feyenoord.

Because of this, it is most likely Diaz or Jota would have been starting that game regardless.

The cup games therefore will be a serious opportunity for Nunez to find any vein of form that he is so desperately looking for.

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