Stuart Pearce blasts ‘amateurish’ Darwin Nunez after Liverpool v West Ham United incident
Stuart Pearce slammed Darwin Nunez for conceding a needless free-kick in the first half of Liverpool’s 5-1 win over West Ham at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Endo Wataru cleared a West Ham corner as far as Danny Ings near the touchline, who did well to pick the ball out of the air and bring it under control.
However, despite there not really being any danger to the Reds, Uruguay forward Nunez came charging in and brought Ings down.
Ex-Hammers coach Pearce was less than impressed by the rash play from Nunez, who had a quiet night in the Carabao Cup showdown on Merseyside considering his side scored five times.
Speaking on talkSPORT 2 on Wednesday night (25 September, 8:40pm), Pearce said: “Well, [it was an] amateurish mistake from Nunez.
“Ings did brilliantly to pull the ball out of the sky but he’s facing away from goal, he’s three yards off the touchline and Nunez bundles him over.”
West Ham gifted free-kick by clumsy Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez
There’s no doubt that it was a striker’s challenge by Nunez, who isn’t really known for his tackling ability and god-given gift of making off-the-ball decisions while defending.
He definitely got ahead of himself with Ings did very well to win a high ball to keep West Ham’s attack alive.
However, in doing so, he probably made the situation more dangerous by giving the Irons a free-kick when Aaron Cresswell’s deliveries into the box had already caused problems in the first half.
Although it was an own goal by Jarrell Quansah, Cresswell helped put the Irons ahead when his inch-perfect corner was headed into a dangerous area by Maximilian Kilman.
Edson Alvarez won the knockdown and the resulting passage of play saw the ball cleared and cannon into the back of the net off Quansah.
Nunez got lucky on that occasion because nothing really came of his indiscretion.
But there’s no doubt Arne Slot, or one of his coaches, will be having words with the Uruguayan at Melwood.
In other West Ham news, Jamie Carragher was wowed by one Hammers star at Anfield.
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