Gary Neville says Darwin Nunez would ‘frighten me’ if he was still playing after Liverpool ace’s incredible cameo
MANCHESTER UNITED legend Gary Neville admits he would be “frighten to death” with the prospect of facing Liverpool star Darwin Nunez.
Nunez put together a man-of-the-match performance at Newcastle on Sunday after coming off the bench as his late brace led to a dramatic comeback for the Reds who won 2-1.
Neville was very impressed with the striker’s “brilliant” performance and insists the record £85million fee the Merseysiders payed Benfica for the Uruguay international last year is already paying off.
The former ex-England international insists there are some “frantic” elements to his game the 24-year-old still needs to improve.
But the former full-back is adamant he would be “frightened” to face Nunez at his best back in his playing days, and would much rather take on Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota at the same time.
Neville told Sky Sports: “They were brilliant finishes and if ever a player needed it, it was him.
“We talked about [Nicolas] Jackson at Chelsea on Friday night needing a goal for Chelsea. But this lad [Nunez] has been signed for huge money – a different level of expectation because of the money that he’s been signed for.
“Me and Jamie Carragher [had a] conversation on Monday Night Football last season about whether this guy would come good and we both actually felt that he would.
“Because of some of the similar things that you see with Jackson – he runs the channels, he’s a massive handful, you’d hate to play against him.
“But he can be a little scruffy, he just doesn’t look like he can compose himself. He has that frantic element to him that you almost feel like his mind is really quick and that’s not a good think for a striker.
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“But today he set himself, he composed himself and he had one chance before he scored the two goals.
“When you get paid £75m, £80m, £90m, whatever it’s gonna be, are you gonna score goals in the big moments for your team? That was a huge, huge moment for Liverpool.
“Because if he can come good, I’d rather play against Gakpo, I’d rather play against Jota – they’re both very good players. But I’d rather play against both of them than Darwin Nunez.
“He would frighten me to death running off my shoulder. The speed of him, the way in which he always moves. But then if you can’t finish, you don’t have that punch to knock your opponents out.
“If he has the punch like he has today, he becomes a really interesting players for Liverpool.”