The Enigma of Darwin Núñez, the most controversial player in football.
Darwin Nunez is amongst the most fiercely debated topics in football at the moment, I struggle to remember a time where such polarising opinions floated around football discourse. On one end of the spectrum Nunez gets attacked for his poor finishing and comical moments in front of goal. I’m sure we have all seen these videos circling around social media in the last couple of days.
And then on the other side of such views, people (me included) seemingly cannot stop praising him. Very little middle ground, the marmite player, either you love them or you hate them. Whilst I will get on to why I admire him as a player so much later I cannot discount his flaws, because for me they are frustrating. Maybe because they are so avoidable.
So why is he so heavily criticised?
The majority of the football community has placed Nunez under heavy fire particularly for his poor finishing. I am not going to sit here and try to tell you that Darwin Nunez has been fantastic this season, and he has been brilliant in front of goal. He hasn’t. He has been very very poor. Too many a time this season he has been placed in a goalscoring position and lost all composure, and not been able to convert.
The issue for Nunez is not technical, it’s not a lack of raw talent or a ability to get the shot away. His ball striking is immense, one of the best in the premier league. We’ve seen on many occasions what he is technically capable of. So why when it matters, and he is presented with a relatively simple chance, he cannot convert?
Goalscoring requires both physical and mental skill. On the physical side, a player must have strong technical ability, ball striking is a attribute which is not lost on Darwin Nunez. However, this is only have the story and mental factors also play a crucial role in finishing. A player must have confidence in their ability to score, as well as the ability to remain composed and focused under pressure whilst being able to make quick and decisive decisions in the final third of the pitch.
The link between psychology and football is profound and important in this case in particular. Composure in front of goal has direct relationships towards your effectiveness at converting chances into goals, this is the basis of goalscoring. On too many occasions does Nunez let the blood rush to his head and make the wrong decision. He has technical qualities that rival Haaland, but not even half the composure. Top strikers know what they are going to do with the football before they even think about actually putting their foot through the it.
The basis of this issue is composure, believing in yourself as a player to execute what you want to do. Part of this is confidence. And when you are consistently missing major chances and opportunities whilst getting consistent stick from social media and the football community, your confidence level will take further hits. Every missed opportunity, every further mistake will lead to a deterioration in confidence and compounding the negative effects on the subsequent chance. This is a mental hole that just keeps getting deeper, and for Nunez there is no way out.
So why the praise?
World class strikers don’t just need to be a world class finisher, they need to consistently generate goalscoring opportunities. Wether this is through beating your man, getting the ball out of your feet and being able to get a clean shot away. Or simply position play in the box, knowing when to make your runs in behind and simply being in ‘the right place at the right time’. This is Nunez’s biggest strength. He does this at a absolutely ridiculous rate, something only world class strikers can do. This is why I have so much optimism.
The mental side of his game is something that must be fixed, and it’s important that it is. It’s something that may come with age and experience or simply hours on the training ground. One way or another if this clicks, he will explode. The rate that he generates goalscoring opportunities means that this is inevitable. Nunez’s talent is very raw, issues regarding composure and mental state in front of goal does not worry me at this stage of his development. I have seen enough to regard his ball striking as elite and his ability to create clear opportunities to get these shots away as equally effective, to know that the physical side of his goalscoring is not the issue. If he fixes this, his output will explode.
It’s important to now I’m not regarding his overall contributions to the rest of the team, outside of just scoring goals. That is a conversation for another day and not what this was about, this was just about his finishing, because that’s his major issue. His lack of experience and simply his personality as a footballer make it so. But importantly confidence and composure come hand in hand, and when you don’t have faith in your own abilities it is very difficult to be composed.
