Liverpool's Number Nine: Should Arne Slot Keep Only One of Diogo Jota or Darwin Núñez?

Written on 16/12/2024

Although Liverpool’s attack seems complete and full of options, there is always room for improvement. The left-wing position is well covered up with Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz competing for one spot and doing well when starting individually or playing together (with the latter playing as a number nine), Mohamed Salah is almost single-handedly taking care of the right-wing with no support from the summer signing Federico Chiesa so far.

The number nine position is a conundrum. If fit, Diogo Jota contributes more to the team in terms of goals and assists and is a pest for the opposition defenders with clever movements. Darwin Núñez, on the other hand, is a powerful number nine who will run the channels and play on the last time but hasn’t polished his finishing yet.

On the face of it, Jota does more to justify being a Liverpool number nine, but his injury record is horrendous. He is a bit unlucky too because the last two long-term injuries have come from brutal contacts of the opposition player. Chelsea’s Tosin Adarabioyo landed on his ribs in October to keep him out for two months. Last season, in February, Brentford’s Christian Norgaard fell on his knee in an innocuous one-on-one duel to keep him out for a couple of months.

Jota is more of a contact player who would contest duels with defenders and almost barge through them to create a chance. Last season in the league, he contested five more duels per 90 than Núñez. So, while we can criticise his injury record, his playing style means there aren’t many things that can be done to reduce that (unless Arne Slot wants him to curb that completely. As of now, the duel contention numbers are similar this season to last).

Having said all of that, availability is the best quality in a footballer. Jota’s availability numbers since he joined the club have been below-par.

He is averaging a miss of 20+ games per season barring 2021/22. He is halfway through that count this season as well. Not good enough!

However, when he plays, he produces more than Núñez. We will look at the numbers to back this sentence up. There comes the dilemma for the club and the manager. Age-wise there is no issue yet as Jota recently turned 28 and Núñez will turn 26 in the summer.

Let’s have a look at a visual that shows how the two forwards have performed since Núñez joined the club in 2022. This would also perhaps tell us how different things are under Slot this season compared to the last two under Jurgen Klopp.

Núñez - y-axis, Jota - x-axis

• In terms of getting the quality of chances (non-penalty xG), Jota’s numbers this season aren’t far off the previous two seasons. There is a huge decline in this metric for Núñez though, which shows he is still adapting to the way Slot wants his number nine to play.

• The Portuguese international has dropped off in touches in the opposition box but still averaging more than 5.5 per 90. The Uruguayan’s touches have gone down below 4.5 per 90.

• The shot-creating action average has gone down for both with Núñez creating more than Jota. The former does have a good relationship with Salah in that aspect.

• The spread cluster of the shot metric is close for Jota and he still attempting more than 2.5 per 90. Núñez isn’t far away in that but his attempt count has gone down drastically compared to the last two seasons.

What does this visual tell us? For a number nine at Liverpool, right now, Jota is offering more than his positional competitor. Even with the changes, the 28-year-old has adjusted better than Núñez.