Darwin Nunez getting private coaching from Liverpool legend

FT Desk

• 20 Nov 2022 13:57 GMT
• 4 min read

Darwin Nunez is determined to shake the "flop" tag following his €100 million move to Liverpool from Benfica this summer, and he has the perfect private coach whilst at the World Cup with Uruguay…

After a questionable start - Darwin was sent off three games into his Liverpool career after a headbutt on Crystal Palace's Joachim Andersen - the striker has settled down at Anfield, and left for the World Cup with nine goals and two assists from 18 games under his belt.

Sometimes used off the bench, Darwin has an outright impressive goal-involvement rate of one every 86 minutes he has played for the Reds in all competitions, and he joins a red-hot Uruguayan attack in Qatar.

READ: Darwin Nunez fast becoming €100 million well spent by Liverpool

Nunez has Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani for company in the Uruguay squad, and Suarez - who bagged 82 goals and 46 assists in 133 games for Liverpool between 2011 and 2014 before his €82.3m move to Barcelona in 2014 - has taken the young striker under his wing.

"Nunez is now playing for Liverpool like I knew he would," Suarez said ahead of Uruguay's big kick-off against South Korea in Group H. "He's exploded - and I'm sure there will be many goals and trophies for him there.

Suarez: 'I want to help him'

"I speak with him regularly. I want him to help him, for him to learn from my mistakes."

READ: Luis Suarez set for MLS move - and a huge salary

Both men clearly have a certain streak to them. For Darwin's headbutt read Suarez's biting of Giorgio Chiellini when Uruguay met Italy in the group stages of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Four years earlier, Suarez was sent off for saving a goal-bound Ghana shot with his hand in the quarter-finals in South Africa. Asamoah Gyan missed the subsequent penalty and Uruguay won through.

The two nations have been drawn in the same group this time around, but Suarez, now 35, has no intention of letting Ghana get in the way of him bowing out on a high.

"You always want to do well at a World Cup - but for many of us we are realistic and know this will probably be our final appearances in the competition," he continued. "Me, Cavani, [Diego] Godin, this'll be our last time and we want to make it count."