Former Liverpool player Jose Enrique has strong opinion on Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez
Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez are not good enough to play for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
Former Liverpool player Jose Enrique has shared his opinion on two Liverpool stars he feels are not talented enough to be playing for a team that is looking to win trophies. Nunez left Benfica to join Liverpool in June 2022 for a fee of £64 million plus add-ons. He concluded his first season with 15 goals and four assists in 42 games, while drawing criticism for squandering several excellent opportunities. Having contributed to 31 goals in 47 games this season, he has improved those figures. However, he has still not managed to avoid criticism for his performances this season. Midway through the previous campaign, when Liverpool were coping with a minor injury crisis, Gakpo came to Anfield. But after his £37 million move from PSV, the Dutchman has been in and out of the starting lineup this season, scoring 14 goals and four assists in 47 games across all competitions.
“Darwin Nunez is simply not at the required level and he never has been,” Enrique told Grosvenor Sport, as quoted by Liverpool.com. “He is a good player, I like him a lot and the fans love him, but he isn’t at the level of some of Liverpool’s best forwards from the past. He is a good player but he is not a Liverpool number nine. He could play for a lot of top teams in Europe, but he is not good enough for those that are challenging for trophies. Their old front three was one of the world’s best and now this current team only really has two goal scorers – Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota.
“Cody Gakpo is not a goal scorer and he won’t get you 20 goals every season like Sadio Mane and Salah did. Roberto Firmino wasn’t a player to score that many goals, but he gave you so much more outside of that. Darwin Nunez gets a lot of chances but misses them too frequently.” The brutal assessment comes after Liverpool’s home defeat against Crystal Palace. The Reds failed to grab the opportunity to make it back to the top of the Premier League by losing against the Eagles at Anfield. The goal by Palace’s Eberechi Eze proved to be the difference, as Klopp’s team missed several opportunities. The league is now Manchester City’s to lose, with Pep Guardiola’s team sitting two points above the Reds. Liverpool treble charge has taken a huge hit in the last week with the Merseyside club losing 3-0 in the Europa League against Atalanta and then suffering another home defeat in the league against Palace.
