Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher and Darwin Nunez
Jamiie Carragher has likened a current Liverpool player to Darwin Nunez.
Jamie Carragher has criticised Milos Kerkez’s performances for Liverpool and branded him “the Darwin Nunez of full-backs”.
The Reds made six new signings over the summer with Jeremy Jacquet (£55m, Stade Rennais), Victor Munoz (£34.5m, Osasuna), Ronald Araujo (loan, Barcelona), Ifeanyi Ndukwe (£2.57m, Austria Vienna), Bradley Barcola (£106m, PSG) and Lucca Brughmans (£28.3m, Genk) all joining.
Liverpool have started their opening two Premier League matches with Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong at full-back with both players coming in for criticism.
And Gary Neville has questioned why Liverpool didn’t focus more of their attention on the full-back positions in the summer transfer window.
Neville began on The Overlap: “The two full-backs, it was quite clear at the start of last season when you watched them for five or six matches, that defensively they weren’t going to be quite at the level to do it.”
Neville added: “I’m stunned. We talk about ‘will Arsenal regret not bringing in a forward’ – will Liverpool regret not bringing in a couple of full-backs?”
READ: Iraola reacts to criticism that Liverpool failed to sign a replacement for Salah
Another Manchester United legend Roy Keane continued: : “I look at the two full-backs for Liverpool, I’m on about the basics of the game, I’m on about heading the football, or they’re trying to win balls that you can’t win; kicking the ball. They don’t even have a feel for the ball where you can just dink it in behind, or play one-twos.
“Listen, looking back, we used to give Trent [Alexander-Arnold] a lot of stick defensively. But passing, pinging, switching play…”
Liverpool man is ‘the Darwin Nunez of full-backs’ – Carragher
Before Carragher made a comparison between Kerkez and former Liverpool striker Nunez, the former Reds defender said: “Their understanding of the game is really, really poor. You’re watching the game and thinking, ‘Why has he done that?’
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“I described Kerkez last season – and it was his first season, maybe it was a bit harsh at the time – he’s the Darwin Nunez of full-backs. It’s just like ‘head down and run’, everything Kerkez does is 100 miles an hour.
“You know, when you’re on a football pitch, you’re very rarely running as fast as you can. When you’re getting chased, that’s running as fast as you can, but you’re not running as fast on the pitch because you know you’re going to have to stop, change direction, you’re going to have to swap the ball… but he does everything 100 miles an hour – every time he closes someone down, he passes it – bang!
“They’ve brought in Kerkez for £40million. He’s had his first season, it wasn’t amazing, but right, you go: ‘OK, Iraola’s come in from Bournemouth, he knows him, he’s still our left-back. Andy Robertson moved on, we had another left-back on loan, so we’re probably not going to spend another £40million on another. He’s our left-back, let him have another year.'”
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