Liverpool might be struggling this season, but one partnership is already significantly clear of Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne. A true explosion awaits.
Liverpool forward Darwin Núñez picked up his fourth assist of the season in Monday night’s 2-0 Merseyside Derby victory over Everton.
Núñez cushioned a cross into the path of Mohamed Salah 10 minutes before half-time, with the Egyptian prodding home to finish off a devastating counterattack.
The Uruguayan had previously set up goals in the 2-2 draw with Fulham on the opening day of the season, the 3-1 win over Spurs shortly before the World Cup and the 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat against Manchester City soon after.
And, significantly, all four of those assists have been for Salah. No Liverpool player has laid on more goals for a single teammate this season.
More impressively, Salah and Núñez are creating a chance for one another every 52 minutes when both are on the pitch (via Opta Joe).
That’s the best rate of any duo (at least 1,000 minutes played together) in the Premier League this season.
They’re actually a considerable way ahead of the pairing in second — Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrović and Andreas Pereira (63 minutes).
Spurs’ Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski are third (66), with Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland surprisingly only fourth (67 minutes).
The Haaland/De Bruyne partnership has been widely recognized and applauded, but there has been very little coverage of the Núñez/Salah combination despite its position comfortably atop the leaderboard.
Why might that be the case?
Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah of Liverpool (Image: Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Well, a big part of the reason is that Núñez hasn’t been able to finish the chances Salah has created for him. Indeed, for all the opportunities, the assists have only gone in one direction thus far.
And the reality is that the judgment will be cast based on goals rather than the numbers beneath the surface.
Over the course of their 16 Premier League appearances together, Salah has created 12 chances for Núñez, but the $103m (£85m/€96m) summer signing hasn’t been able to put any of them away.
In fairness, most of them have been difficult opportunities, with the likelihood of scoring (i.e. the expected goal figure) rated at just 12.3 per cent on average.
All told, though, Salah has fashioned 1.47 expected goals for Núñez, and Liverpool would have expected him to put away at least a couple of the chances away given the money it paid.
Only when Núñez addresses this shortfall will the partnership be truly appreciated.
By comparison, Haaland has already scored seven times from De Bruyne’s passes, converting 41.2 per cent of the chances carved out by the Belgian.
Up to now, the Núñez and Salah partnership has looked one-sided on the face of it, with the latter yet to return the favors provided by the former.
But the truth is that Salah is an untapped creative force who matched his career-high with 16 assists last term. With a big-money specialist number nine alongside him, he should have been able to push towards the 20 mark.
If Núñez becomes more clinical, though, that moment will surely come. This has the makings of the best partnership of the Jürgen Klopp era, and potentially the best in the division as a whole. A real explosion is imminent.
