Darwin Nunez dan Mohamed Salah mempunyai persamaan dengan beberapa kehilangan berprofil tinggi baru-baru ini

Antara masalah Liverpool yang tidak terkira banyaknya musim ini ialah ketidakupayaan mereka untuk menukar peluang terbaik mereka. Hanya dalam satu daripada 20 perlawanan liga mereka telah menjaringkan kedua-dua dua pukulan nilai gol tertinggi yang dijangkakan.

The Reds telah terlepas 45 peluang besar (atau ‘jelas’) yang ditentukan oleh Opta, sekurang-kurangnya tujuh lebih banyak berbanding pasukan lain dalam Liga Perdana. Terdapat masalah yang lebih buruk untuk dihadapi – serangan mereka kekal di empat teratas manakala pertahanan mereka tidak – tetapi ia jelas akan mengatasi keretakan lain dalam pasukan jika beberapa lagi gol dijaringkan.

Liverpool telah memenangi lapan dan seri satu daripada sembilan perlawanan liga di mana mereka telah mendahului musim ini. Darwin Nunez telah mensia-siakan 16 peluang besar, yang paling banyak daripada mana-mana pemain di bahagian itu, manakala Mohamed Salah bersama ketiga dengan 12 (dengan Erling Haaland di antara 14).

Each of the Reds’ forwards has missed a golden opportunity in one of the last two matches. It was Salah in the FA Cup at Brighton, firing wide of the goal when put clean through by Harvey Elliott. His Uruguayan colleague was the guilty party at Molineux, though at least his effort was on target after a delicious long pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold had carved the Wolves defence open.

It is unrealistic to expect a player to convert every chance they get, even if we only focus on the highest quality openings. There was something noteworthy about the aforementioned examples, though. The two players were on the opposite side of the penalty area to where they played for the majority of the match.

Salah’s shot was his second furthest left touch of the 2-1 loss on the south coast and a look at his shot map on Understat shows how rarely he scores from that sort of position. Among his 125 Premier League goals for the club (second to Robbie Fowler’s 128), only two have been from left of the six-yard box: his unforgettable strike to seal a 2-0 win against Manchester United in January 2020, and a goal at West Ham in only his 11th eague appearance.

The Brighton opportunity was of higher xG value than any that he has missed from that area in the league, but it doesn’t alter that it’s the side of the box in which Salah is not prolific. Yet the general analysis implied that he would score from there if in top form.

Clearly Nunez does not have as big a sample for analysis, either with Liverpool or before. The pattern is broadly similar, though. Against Wolves, Darwin took aim with a clear-cut chance from just within the width of the six-yard-box, on the right of the penalty area. It is one of nine shots he has had in the box and right of the right-hand goalpost, none of which have found the net. Even with Benfica, in the kinder climes of the Primeira Liga, he only scored four goals from that zone.

Now look at his 10 goals for Liverpool. Three of Nunez’s five in the league have been hit from the left of the penalty spot, as have all three in Europe as well as his strikes in the Community Shield and FA Cup. The goal against Wolves in the latter was from a near-identical spot as where Salah had his chance at Brighton.

Begitu juga, kehilangan Molineux Nunez berada di kawasan yang Salah telah melakukan banyak kerosakan selama ini. Sudah tentu, kedua-dua mereka tidak boleh ditempatkan secara kekal di sisi biasa mereka di padang pada setiap masa, jika tidak, peluang ini tidak akan muncul di tempat pertama. Jurgen Klopp perlu mempertimbangkan cara untuk mendapatkan mereka dalam kedudukan premium mereka dengan lebih kerap, dan kemudian Liverpool mungkin tidak menonjol dalam carta ‘peluang besar terlepas’.