Nunez’s poor match ended with the image of the Uruguayan star arguing with Man City coach Pep Guardiola on the sideline after the referee blew the final whistle, a moment that further highlighted the helplessness that Nunez had to face. 90 minutes at Etihad.
Haaland as well as Nunez are both rookies of the Premier League from last season when both were recruited by the parent club at a high price. Especially after the 2022/23 English Super Cup ended, Nunez and Haaland became the subject of controversial comparisons across the media. But after just over a season, the answer to the above question is increasingly clear as Haaland has just officially become the fastest player to reach 50 goals in Premier League history (after 48 matches), while Nunez has continuously let left their mark with reprehensible misses.
The contrast in class between these two strikers is clearly shown by Haaland’s opening goal. The Norwegian star neatly controlled a pass from teammate Nathan Ake before firing a dangerous cross-angle shot to beat goalkeeper Alisson Becker, a situation that took place just a few minutes after Nunez himself missed the opportunity to score. ten hundred from a close-range header.
According to many experts, Nunez’s performance is similar to what his compatriot, Edinson Cavani, showed when he was young. Both need inspiration to have good performances. Nunez and Cavani are both center forwards who move smartly to receive many favorable opportunities, but their average finishing ability means they don’t have many goals each season.
The ability to convert opportunities into goals is the biggest difference between Haaland and Nunez. According to statistics from Opta, both Haaland and Nunez have an average number of opportunities per 90 minutes in the Premier League about the same (2.0 and 1.8), but the Man City star’s conversion rate of those opportunities into goals reached 44%, twice as much as his colleague on the other side of the front line (21.4%).
In addition, the harmlessness of Nunez’s ability to pressure from the front line against Man City’s defense forced Klopp to replace the Uruguayan striker with Cody Gakpo, a center forward with a playing style similar to Roberto Firmino with impressive pressing ability. , before everything is too late for the Red Brigade. This was the right decision by the German strategist because after Gakpo was on the field, Ederson could not easily throw any passes to Rodri, the most dangerous explosion point in the process of moving the ball from home field to ball. The Citizens’ forward line, which Nunez was completely helpless before, allowed Ederson and Rodri to find each other 9 times throughout the match, the highest on Man City’s side.
The forgettable images that Nunez created against The Citizens along with Haaland’s trademark killer instinct became the most definitive evidence to end the debate from last season: Who is better?