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Darwin Nunez Posts and Then Deletes Tweet After Open Goal Miss v Aston Villa
Daniel Hepburn
16 – 21 minutes
Liverpool
4
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Darwin Nunez Liverpool-1
Liverpool’s out-of-sorts striker Darwin Nunez enjoyed a night to forget once he replaced Diogo Jota in the 66th minute of his side’s Premier League clash with Aston Villa – and his belatedly-deleted social media post the day after their 2-2 draw has raised eyebrows.
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AS Monaco are in something of a crisis heading into Tuesday night’s Champions League clash against Aston Villa. Despite being in the respectable position of fourth in Ligue 1, Adi Hutter’s side have only won one of their last eight matches in all competitions and that victory came against lower league side Union Saint-Jean in the French Cup. Excluding that routine 4-1 win, Monaco have only claimed victory in one of their last 10. Powered by Their young side hasn’t fully recovered from their last defeat to Benfica at home matchweek five of the Champions League league phase. They were winning 2-1 until goals from Arthur Cabral and then Zeki Amdouni turned the game around in the final stages. READ | Why Ollie Watkins ‘got a bit frustrated’ as striker closes in on Aston Villa history READ | Aston Villa’s dream transfer window as five sign and seven leave in January Then, following a defeat at Marseille and a win over Toulouse in the league, Monaco lost 3-0 at Arsenal in matchweek six. It leaves them 16th in the league phase table, but only three points behind Villa in fifth place. After that loss at the Emirates Stadium, Monaco played out a 0-0 draw with Reims before they suffered defeats to Paris Saint-Germain in the league and cup either side of beating Union Saint-Jean. Failure to beat Nantes and then being knocked out of the French Cup via penalties against Reims meant Monaco’s trip to Montpellier was a ‘must win’ to get them back on track. “I think this is the right match to motivate the whole team just before the Champions League,” Mohamed Salisu said before the game. “It is a very important match to get an energy boost and regain confidence in order to best prepare for the match against Aston Villa. We believe in ourselves and we want to take the three points. “We have no doubts, football is about ups and downs depending on the period. We are currently in a bad moment and we have to fight to get back to the top. The season had started very well and we were in good form, we just need to believe in what we are doing on the pitch and listen to the coach’s tactical advice to get back to our level.” But Monaco fell to a shock 2-1 defeat against Jean-Louis Gasset’s Montepellier and Hutter claimed the important match with Villa wasn’t in the minds of his players. Powered by “Today, it’s more than a big disappointment, it’s a real gut punch for us and everyone at the club,” Hutter said after full-time. “At the start of the season, the wins were stacking up, everyone was happy. I have been in professional football for 35 years as a player before and as a coach now. It is not the first time this has happened to me and the main thing I have learned is to stay positive, work on the details and help the team.” Asked if he thought that the Champions League match against Villa could have affected the team’s mentality, Hutter responded: “I don’t think so, I have the feeling that the team was completely focused on this match. You could see that in the first half, we wanted to make the difference quickly but we missed too many chances. In the second half, we wanted to score the second goal but we made an individual error. We then had no right to concede another goal. “We tried to come back after with several chances in the last minutes but it was too little. I have a lot of respect for Montpellier but we needed to impose ourselves to regain confidence. Tuesday will be a completely different match, it’s the Champions League at home, but I don’t think the team already had Aston Villa in mind.” What is your Monaco vs Villa score prediction? Tell us here READ NEXT: Louie Barry makes transfer decision as Aston Villa told he’s ‘ready’ to accept deal Aston Villa transfer news with latest on Garcia and Bade as trio could leave I visited huge new Midland charity shop and wished the previous store never shut down Marks & Spencer has £29.50 ‘best alternative’ to Levi’s that’s £80 cheaper Aston Villa favourite could join Premier League rivals Man City ‘on loan’ Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.
January 20, 2025
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Shunted to the bench to accommodate Jota in the solitary centre forward berth, the Uruguayan offered very little in his short cameo in the Midlands – and his point-blank effort that seared over the crossbar was the perfect encapsulation of his Anfield career.
Found perfectly by Dominik Szoboszlai, the ex-Benfica hitman – who is one of the highest-paid strikers in the Premier League right now – failed to convert his chance into a wide-open goal, leaving those associated with Liverpool in utter belief.
In the immediate aftermath of the points shared at Villa Park, fans were frustrated with the 25-year-old’s behaviour. The rest of his teammates, despite the result, thanked the travelling fans for their undying support – but not Nunez.
He trudged down the tunnel with his shirt over his shoulder as a means of showing his frustration – but that rubbed fans up the wrong way. But now, translated into English, his now-deleted social media post has insisted that he is yet to give up.
Two three weeks ago, Darwin was the best, Darwin gave us the three points, but yesterday I was unlucky enough to miss a goal and I am once again the “worst” and the failure. I don’t fall, I get up and I’m never going to give up. I’m going to give it my all until the last day I have to be in Liverpool. Resilience!
Nunez – who has been reduced to a back-up role under Arne Slot’s watchful eye – has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to re-post a formally-written statement. It reads: “I wasn’t the best three weeks ago, and I’m not the worst now. If I fall, I get up. You’ll never see me give up. I’m going to give it my all until the last day I’m here at Liverpool. Resilience!”
Slot Addresses Nunez’s Open-Goal Miss
‘I would prefer him to score but the word ‘chance’ says it all’
After the game, Liverpool boss Slot spoke about Nunez’s glaring miss and insisted that, although he was not let down by the talisman, the Artigas-born star’s poor work ethic, perhaps on the back of the disappointment of missing a gilt-edged opportunity, did irk him.
“I will tell him that you can miss a chance but you cannot miss out on workrate. That is the life of a striker, he will miss chances and score some. It is part of the job of a No 9, you miss when people expect you to score,” the Dutch tactician said, per Mail Online.
It is not part of the job of a No 9 to slow down in workrate. And that is something we will talk about.
Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez in action
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Slot then continued: “I can accept every miss, especially from a player who scored two very important goals away at Brentford and that scored for us in the home game against Villa. I would prefer him to score but the word ‘chance’ says it all.”
