Arne Slot is well on his way to securing his first Premier League title with Liverpool in his first attempt, currently sitting top of the tree on 67 points after 28 matches played, 13 points ahead of second-place Arsenal who do have one game in hand
Liverpool are unsurprisingly the league’s top scorers, scoring 66 goals in their 28 games played, taking the most shots per game with 16.6 and averaging 56.7% possession; the fourth highest in the division
Mohamed Salah has scored a whopping 25 Premier League goals this season, whilst also providing 17 assists and totaling 2,485 minutes played.
Behind Salah, the likes of Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota have all contributed with goals, as has Dominik Szoboszlai in recent weeks, being deployed as a false 9 at times under Slot.
This has left Darwin Nunez’s future in doubt, as he clearly finds himself out of favour
The Darwin Nunez conundrum for Liverpool
Nunez was signed by Liverpool back in 2022, joining for a club-record fee of around £85m from Benfica.
Since joining the Reds, Nunez has made 132 appearances, scoring 39 goals, providing 22 assists and totalling 7,105 minutes played.
The story of Nunez’s time at Liverpool can largely be put into perspective with his missed chance against Aston Villa.
Whilst he gets himself into very good positions, working hard for the team and constantly offering a threat on the break, his ability to provide that final clinical touch has proven to evade him at times.
This term, he has missed 13 big chances which remarkably is an improvement on last season where he missed a colossal 38 across all competitions
Some of his misses have been described as “unacceptable” by pundits, and the longer this continues, the more you begin to wonder if Nunez will eventually be replaced, even if it’s by someone from Liverpool’s academy system
Liverpool’s “special” star could replace Nunez
The Reds are currently bringing through a number of highly-rated young forwards at the moment with Jayden Danns perhaps the most exciting from a striker perspective
However, in the shape of Ben Doak, they have a winger who could also take minutes away from Nunez heading into Slot’s second term.
Liverpool signed Doak from Celtic back in 2022, with the youngster joining for a measly £600,000 compensation fee from the Scottish giants.
The 19-year-old has found himself on loan at Middlesbrough this season, making 24 appearances, scoring three goals, providing seven assists and totalling 1,789 minutes
Doak can play on both wings, which opens the opportunity for Slot to continue using the likes of Diaz, Szoboszlai, Jota and even Curtis Jones through the middle, looking to exploit his attacking firepower out wide with the likes of Salah and Gakpo.
The Scotland international was described as a “special” young player by Jürgen Klopp, whilst Jones described the Liverpool youngster as a “potential game-changer” when he joined Boro in the summer on loan.