Despite Nunez being sensationally dismissed for a headbutt on his complete debut, Luis Diaz helped Liverpool hold Crystal Palace to a 1-1 draw at Anfield.
In the first half, Palace took the lead thanks to a goal by Wilfried Zaha that came against the flow of play and came after Nunez’s stupid reaction to a push from Joachim Andersen.
Darwin Nunez received praise from Crystal Palace for devising a fresh, combative strategy to thwart him.
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They had no idea how simple it would be for Liverpool’s hyped-up £85 million striker to fall into their trap.
Nunez, making his debut for Liverpool, survived a discouraging 57 minutes against Palace’s tough defense five until the crimson mist that matched his shirt descended.
The 23-year-old Uruguayan foolishly leaned forward to headbutt his adversary on the jaw in response to a shove in the back from Joachim Andersen.
On his first Liverpool appearance at Anfield, it wasn’t the type of comparison to his countryman Luis Suarez that he wanted, and referee Paul Tierney had no choice but to send him on a walk of shame down the tunnel.
Nunez found his first start for Jurgen Klopp to be far more difficult than his previous two appearances for Liverpool as a substitute, as Palace’s back-five, which included three strong center defenders in Joel Ward, Andersen, and Marc Guehi, suffocated him for time and space.
It quickly became apparent that Nunez lacks the craft and technical proficiency of Roberto Firmino, the center-forward he is replacing, despite his lightning-quick speed.
The Uruguayan forward in the game had numerous scoring chances but squandered them.
Nunez is on same level with any of Klopp’s excellent forwards, but in terms of X-factor, he currently lacks the ability to connect with teammates.
Like Manchester City players are doing with Erling Haaland, even Mo Salah appears to be adapting to help Nunez.
When Palace’s defenders closed in, the Egyptian slipped a fantastic pass for his teammate to run onto, but Salah couldn’t shoot because the return ball from the striker wasn’t sharp enough.
The fact that Liverpool’s “other” South American, Luis Diaz, scored an incredible equalizer after Nunez had let his team down and departed the field won’t have helped Nunez’s disposition either.
Nunez appears to cause chaos when he’s on the pitch, according to Anfield icon Jamie Carragher, who said this before kickoff.
Unfortunately for Nunez, he caused all of the destruction on Monday night.
A nightmare for Liverpool and Klopp, according to Carragher’s post-game comments.
“It’s a nightmare start for him as a player at Liverpool, it’s a nightmare for Jurgen Klopp as he is trying to integrate him into a new team.”
“The issue wasn’t tonight, the problem is how long it will be until he is back in the team as he’ll likely only be on the bench after the suspension to get up to speed so it could be five or six weeks until we see him back in the Liverpool starting XI.”
Neville stated that Nunez had no cause for complaint regarding the red card, but expressed sympathy for the Uruguayan striker for “his moment of madness” because he had experienced a similar scenario as a player and lost his mind.
“We don’t know why he’s done it. I’ve done two or three things like this in my career. We don’t know why we react. We have no idea. We go off and think ‘what did I just do’ – honestly.”
“I kicked a ball at a fan at Everton and did a similar thing in a game against Steve McManaman. It’s that red mist. It comes over you.”
“When you get sent off like that it’s the loneliest place in the world. You might have a kit man with you but it’s horrible. You are in that dressing room and your team-mates are out on the pitch. You’ve left them down and you feel so bad.”
“You don’t need to say too much to a player that has been sent off as it’s awful anyway and they take responsibility. I’m sure he’d have gone around the dressing room to apologise. The rest of the lads in that dressing room will pick him up as it’s a good dressing room.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp reactions after the game.
“I’ve seen it back, that’s of course a red card. He was provoked all the time but that’s not how he should behave.
“I will talk to him, it makes no sense when I talk too much about it in public. It’s not the reaction you want to see. The centre-halves in the Premier League will do that to him, he’s a handful himself.”
