{"id":296128,"date":"2023-11-24T20:24:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T20:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=296128"},"modified":"2023-11-24T20:24:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T20:24:46","slug":"mo-salah-and-darwin-nunez-are-the-premier-leagues-best-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/mo-salah-and-darwin-nunez-are-the-premier-leagues-best-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are the Premier League&apos;s best partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are the best partnership in the Premier League! Jurgen Klopp&#8217;s diamond duo have more assists for each other than ANY other pairing as \u00a385m Uruguayan finally finds his feet<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez have formed the league&#8217;s most efficient partnership\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Nunez struggled to find his feet last year but is a valuable sidekick for Salah\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>City-Liverpool is tough to referee&#8230; but our campaign is up and running &#8211; IAKO\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At times last season, it felt like Mo Salah was leading a one-man band at Liverpool. With Sadio Mane\u2019s departure for Bayern Munich breaking up a golden trio of the two Africans and Roberto Firmino, who struggled for game-time, Salah was both the chief goal-scorer and creative force.<\/p>\n<p>The Egyptian had a stellar season, scoring 30 goals and notching a further 16 assists, but it felt like there was nobody to share the load for Liverpool in a sub-par campaign that saw them finish fifth in the Premier League, 22 points behind champions Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>Jurgen Klopp had many problems in his team, ranging from sloppy defensive displays to an ageing and declining midfield. One issue that was not so often mentioned was that the German had to completely renovate his style of play to accommodate Darwin Nunez\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n<p>Nunez signed for \u00a385million from Benfica and had a well-documented tough first season on Merseyside. The Uruguayan scored just 15 goals, struggled with the language barrier and also had a couple of niggly injuries and a suspension that set him back.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/11\/78195289-0-image-a-63_1700825842478.jpg\" height=\"430\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez have lit up the Premier League this season as a new dynamic duo\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/18\/78208859-12787281-image-a-9_1700851446743.jpg\" height=\"456\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Jurgen Klopp renovated his style to include Nunez last season and is now being rewarded<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/11\/78195299-0-image-a-64_1700826004382.jpg\" height=\"446\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The two have assisted each other more than any other pairing &#8211; and are the most efficient<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>With Firmino not at his best, plus long-term injuries at different points to fellow attackers Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, Salah had to step up and it felt like he was forced to do everything when Liverpool were going forward.<\/p>\n<p>Nunez was tried as a focal point but Klopp was frustrated at his lack of understanding for the defensive side of the game, so Jota or Cody Gakpo &#8211; who was the main No 9 for the majority of the second half of the season &#8211; often played through the middle instead.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He just plays for the team,\u2019 said Salah on Firmino after his exit. \u2018He doesn&#8217;t really care about scoring that much, he just wants to enjoy his game and just play football and wants the team to win.\u2019 Mane added: \u2018We did incredible things together. I am so grateful.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>That trio is gone but, slowly, Salah is finding a new best pal on the pitch in Nunez. It took a while to click, but now they are one of the most formidable duos in Europe, supplemented by one of Diaz, Jota or Gakpo on the left.<\/p>\n<p>Salah will often drift inside and play quick, one-touch passes with Nunez, while the Uruguayan forward is gaining a better understanding of when to come short and when to run in behind. They seem to have an intrinsic understanding that all good attacking partnerships need.<\/p>\n<p>The statistics speak for themselves. So far in the league this season, Nunez and Salah have assisted each other five times &#8211; more in the Europa League. That\u2019s more than any other duo in the Premier League, with Arsenal\u2019s Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard behind on three.<\/p>\n<p>Nunez and Salah have created 19 chances for one another, again top of the Premier League rankings with Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa just behind. Saturday\u2019s opponents Manchester City have a dynamic duo in Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez, in third on that list.<\/p>\n<p>What is most eye-catching, though, is that Nunez and Salah have linked up so efficiently with just 582 Premier League minutes played together, with the Uruguayan not the first-choice option at the start of the season. Diaby and Watkins, for reference, have played 936 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/11\/78195407-0-image-a-65_1700826080251.jpg\" height=\"435\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Things didn&#8217;t quite click for Nunez on Merseyside last season following his \u00a385m transfer<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/11\/78195487-0-image-a-66_1700826288781.jpg\" height=\"458\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The trio of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino dominated Liverpool&#8217;s frontline for years\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aside from footballing link-ups, Liverpool\u2019s diamond duo have a close personality bond and get on well. That might be taken for granted, but Salah and Mane often had disagreements which created tension in the team due to perceived greed when in possession of the football.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I knew those guys very well, maybe better than anyone,\u2019 wrote Firmino in his recent autobiography Si Senor. \u2018It was me right in the middle of them. I saw first-hand the looks, the grimaces, the body language, the dissatisfaction when one was mad at the other.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I could feel it. I was the link between them in our attacking play and the firefighter in those moments. For many, that disagreement between Sadio and Mo was the first; for some, the first and last. But I knew it had been brewing since the previous season, 2018-19.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018They were never best friends, each kept himself to himself. It was rare to see the two of them talking and I\u2019m not sure if that had to do with the Egypt-Senegal rivalry in African competitions. I truly don\u2019t know. But they also never stopped talking, never severed ties.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/12\/78196101-0-image-a-72_1700827607875.jpg\" height=\"458\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Salah has scored 198 goals for Liverpool now &#8211; only four men have scored more than 200\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/12\/78196149-0-image-a-73_1700827678982.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Firmino wrote that Mane and Salah &#8216;were never best friends&#8217; due to their disagreements\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Firmino went on to write that Klopp indirectly shouted at Salah &#8211; he was talking to the whole dressing room but it felt charged at the Egyptian &#8211; about how players were being greedy in front of goal and not passing to team-mates in better positions.<\/p>\n<p>That is no issue now, with Salah stepping up in a creative sense this season, with 12 goals and four assists so far, just two strikes away from his 200th for Liverpool, a figure that only four men have reached for the club: Ian Rush, Roger Hunt, Gordon Hodgson and Billy Liddell.<\/p>\n<p>Passing the double-century of goals for the Reds might come this weekend at the home of the champions, but Salah is now an ultimate team player and will not care a jot if his contribution comes only in the form of assists, possibly for the other half of Liverpool\u2019s new diamond duo.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12787281\/Mo-Salah-Darwin-Nunez-best-partnership-Premier-League-Jurgen-Klopp.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are the best partnership in the Premier League! Jurgen Klopp&#8217;s diamond duo have more assists for each other than ANY <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/mo-salah-and-darwin-nunez-are-the-premier-leagues-best-partnership\/\" title=\"Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are the Premier League&amp;apos;s best partnership\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are the Premier League&amp;apos;s best partnership - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/mo-salah-and-darwin-nunez-are-the-premier-leagues-best-partnership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are the Premier League&amp;apos;s best partnership - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez are the best partnership in the Premier League! 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