If Sunday’s win over Manchester City is to be the springboard that Liverpool’s stuttering season required, then perhaps this rather more sedate victory over West Ham United can provide the same for their marquee summer signing. The hope will be that Darwin Nunez’s first Anfield goal is a catalyst for a career that is beginning to show shoots of potential, if this match-winning display is anything to go by.
Nunez’s first-half header proved enough to overcome a West Ham side that, by the end, had done enough to earn a point. If Jarrod Bowen had converted a penalty on the cusp of half time, they may have even taken all three, given that they were the more dangerous of the two sides in the second half. Yet David Moyes was left to rue missed chances, especially a late Tomas Soucek opportunity that somehow did not earn them an equaliser.
Liverpool’s task for the evening was to ensure Sunday was not another false dawn in the manner that the wins over Newcastle United and Ajax proved to be. Klopp kept faith in the shape that inflicted Manchester City’s first defeat of the season but switched personnel. Trent Alexander-Arnold was one of five changes, making his first start since recovering from injury, while Diogo Jota’s calf problem brought Nunez into the line-up.
The Uruguayan’s chaotic late cameo against City went largely unremarked upon in all the bad blood post-match, though enough of the away end here saw it judging by their early suggestion that he is an inferior version of Andy Carroll. West Ham provided Carroll with an escape route out of Anfield after the failure of his £35million move, of course, but Nunez quickly made his case that he will be following the same path.
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