9 months ago
181 Rio Ferdinand has suggested that he was surprised to see Jurgen Klopp leave one player out of the Liverpool starting lineup for their trip to Arsenal on Sunday.
The weekend proved to be a hugely disappointing one for Liverpool. Arsenal won 3-1 in a result which would have delighted Manchester City in the Premier League title race.
Liverpool went into the game off the back of a brilliant win over Chelsea. But they struggled to get out of second gear, almost only ever looking bright in the first few minutes of each half.
Rio Ferdinand surprised Darwin Nunez didn’t start for Liverpool at Arsenal
Jurgen Klopp decided to leave Darwin Nunez on the bench and played with Cody Gakpo in the forward line. Nunez was outstanding against Chelsea. And Gakpo has perhaps been the most underwhelming forward available to the Reds this season.
Klopp sprung a further surprise by not making changes at half-time. But it was not long into the second-half that Nunez did indeed come on. However, Liverpool went backwards from there.
And speaking on Vibe with Five, Rio Ferdinand insisted that Nunez should have started the game, and it may have been a different story had the Uruguayan led the line.
“I’ve got to be honest, I was surprised when I saw the team come out. I was like, if I was a defender on the opposite team at Arsenal, I’d have been happy with that,” he said.
“Darwin Nunez has been on some smoke. He hasn’t been maybe scoring all the goals that everyone’s going mad about. But he’s causing havoc. He’s ruffling feathers.
“I watched him against Chelsea. He didn’t score, but they couldn’t handle him. It would have been a different story up front. Gakpo’s a decent player, but he isn’t the way Nunez is, running in behind all the time.”
Different decision may not have changed a great deal
Nunez has been excellent this season, scoring 11 goals and contributing 11 assists in all competitions. He is still not the finished article. But he has definitely started to turn a corner.
Gakpo has scored nine times. But almost half of those goals have come in the Carabao Cup. Admittedly, three came against Premier League opposition, while the other came against Leicester. But he only has one league goal since the end of September.
The Dutchman did not vindicate Klopp’s selection gamble. However, he was far from being the only Liverpool player to struggle to rise to the occasion on Sunday.
The post 'Got to be honest': Rio Ferdinand shocked Jurgen Klopp left one Liverpool player out on Sunday appeared first on TBR Football.
