Thierry Henry was full of praise for how Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez took his match-winning goal against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
The Uruguayan secured a dramatic last-gasp victory when he got his head to a brilliant Alexis Mac Allister delivery, guiding the ball past Matz Sels in the 99th minute at the City Ground.
The Arsenal legend was a guest on Sky Sports‘ Monday Night Football, and he and Jamie Carragher were looking back on the decisive moment from that game.
Henry said of Nunez’s header (19:27, 4 March): “I wasn’t that great with that [side-on headed goal], but where he did ever so well is that you just have to hit it almost going now, because he got pushed a bit down.
“He met the ball exactly where he should have met, at the peak of his jump, and then bring it down. The defender of Nottingham Forest cannot put any power in his jump because he is backpedaling. It is very difficult to defend like that.”
Considering how well Nunez took his winning goal on Saturday, as well as the exquisite lob over Mark Flekken in the win at Brentford last month, it seems mind-boggling to think that he’s faced frequent criticism over his apparent shortcomings as a finisher.
It’s true that he’s been culpable of some bad misses – the sitter at Luton in November comes to mind – but he wouldn’t be sitting on 14 goals for the season so far if he didn’t have bags of ability in the penalty area.
When one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever goalscorers in Henry is left in awe of the Uruguayan’s finishing, the Liverpool striker must be doing plenty right.
The quality of the finish was somewhat overshadowed by the fallout from Forest’s furious reaction to how Paul Tierney restarted play two minutes beforehand, but Kopites won’t care one jot if Nunez continues to pop up in the nick of time, just like he did on Saturday.
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