When the final whistle of Liverpool and Benfica blew, although the final result was not too unexpected, the game was full of twists and turns. Looking through the comments section, Benfica fans didn't have much of a ripple about the team's exit. On the contrary, Núñez's highlight performance in the strong dialogue made the fans very happy.
Indeed, for a team like Benfica, ensuring the development of young players and maintaining the competitiveness of the "European black shop" seems to be the primary consideration.
In fact, Nunez's highlight performance was not only reflected in the match against Liverpool. Over the past few years, Núñez has grown from a no-brained fringe player to a potential centre-forward who is now a hit in European football. Now, he has taken over the banner of his predecessors Suarez and Cavani in the national team and has become a representative candidate for the Uruguayan center position. On the club side, Núñez has long been an indispensable key link in Benfica's front line, and it seems only a matter of time before his soaring skyrockets.
[Núñez - Benfica's hot "new goods"]
When it comes to Benfica, the first impression of many fans who don't pay much attention to the Portuguese league is often "European black shop". Indeed, although not in the big five leagues, Benfica has no less news in football than the teams in the big five leagues, and the reason for this is their excellent ability to develop young players.
According to statistics, during the period from 2010 to January 2020 (that is, before the outbreak of the epidemic in European football), Benfica reached 640 million euros through a net income of 10,000 people, firmly ranking first in Europe. You know, the second-place Porto only has a net income of 350 million euros, Benfica is close to double theirs, and its "hematopoietic ability" is evident.
With such a good foundation, Benfica's young players naturally receive a lot of attention. Felix, who has joined Atletico Madrid for 120 million euros before, Nuñez is naturally more anticipated by all parties, is it possible that he will become the next "Felix" created by Benfica?
The answer is entirely possible.
Núñez was born on June 24, 1999 in Artigas, Uruguay. In 2013, the 14-year-old Nunez managed to win the olive branch of the Penarol youth team with a good performance. However, his performance in the youth team can only be described as decent, and in the end he failed to get a long contract from Penarol, and only a few months later to facilitate the club's termination, thus embarking on the road to find another home.
During this period, Nunez was at a small low point in his life, and after the termination of his contract with the club, he could not find his next home, and he could only maintain his status through personal training. However, relying on personal training is not a long-term thing, and Nunez, who was not yet 15 years old at the time, needed professional youth coaches and youth team systems to plan his development trajectory. Weighing the pros and cons, Núñez chose to return to Penarol.
This decision completely changed his career. Nunez, who joined Penarol for the second time, did not live up to the expectations of his coach, and his performance in the academy rose steadily, finally getting a chance to enter the first team in 2017. You know, Penarol was a strong contender for the title in the Uruguayan league at the time, and Núñez was able to get a chance to enter the first team at the age of 18, and his talent potential was beyond doubt.
On November 22, 2017, the then 18-year-old made his career debut. Unfortunately, Núñez played late in that game, unable to change the overall poor performance of the team, and finally had no choice but to accept the embarrassing reality of losing 1:2 to River Plate. Still, Núñez's debut has a lot to say, scoring his first career goal in a 2–0 home win over Phoenix on 13 October 2018 and then scoring his first hat-trick of his career on 14 July 2019.
His steady promotion at Penarol has allowed Núñez to gain the attention of many European scouts. From the perspective of technical characteristics, Nunez inherits the characteristics of South American players who are flexible and excellent in their feet, not only can rely on physical fitness to carry the ball like a center forward, but also can play exquisite cooperation with teammates in a small area, and even rely on their own personal ability to dribble breakthroughs in many moments.
This technical feature is scarce in many clubs in European football, and Nunez's high development potential has made many middle and lower-class teams willing to sign him to try to supplement the squad. Against this backdrop, on 29 August 2019, La Liga side Almeria officially announced the signing of a five-year contract with Núñez, with a transfer fee of $4.5 million, plus a $1.5 million floating clause.
After years of experience in the Uruguayan league, Nuñez at this time, although there are still many immature points, has shown the basic qualities of a good center forward. Just two months later, he scored Almeria's first goal in a 3-2 home win over Extremadura, and the Uruguayan centre-forward has since moved up further to gain a foothold in the team's main squad.
In the 2019-20 season, Nunez made 32 appearances for Almeria in all competitions (including 30 starts), scoring 16 goals and assisting three assists. You know, Nunez had just turned 20 at the time, and although his starting point was not in the top five leagues, it was still quite difficult to adapt to the rhythm of Spanish football in a short period of time and give such efficient goalscoring data.
With such a good start in European football, Núñez naturally gained more attention from scouts. At this time, he has three main paths in front of him: first, choose to continue to stay in Almeria to practice, seeking the opportunity to be noticed by the top giants; second, transfer to the second-tier teams in Europe, on the one hand, to learn higher football concepts, on the other hand, to get more attention by upgrading the stage; third, join some of the stronger five league teams, but may not be able to get the opportunity to play for a long time.
Weighing the pros and cons, Nunez decided to take a higher stage. But he knew that his strength was not yet in the upper reaches of the five major leagues, so he accepted an offer from the Portuguese Super League Benfica and landed in Portuguese football with a transfer fee of 24 million euros. At this time, Núñez was only 21 years old, but he had already experienced in Uruguay, Spain and Portugal in many leagues, and his game experience was richly tempered, laying a solid foundation for future glory in the Portuguese league.
After coming to Benfica, Nunez quickly integrated into the team's main squad after a short run-in, becoming a semi-main player in his first season with the team, making 29 starts for Benfica in all competitions, scoring 14 goals and as many as 10 assists. You know, the season of Núñez just landed in Portugal, and the playing time in the team is relatively limited, he can contribute to the double ten of goals and assists in such an environment, which can be seen in its strength.
With a good foundation laid in the first season, Nunez has naturally become the main force of the team this season. So far, he has made 37 appearances for Benfica in all competitions (including 28 starts), has scored 32 goals and 3 assists, and is almost one of the most efficient strikers in European football.
So far, Núñez has scored 24 goals in the Portuguese Premier League, firmly occupying the top spot in the Portuguese Premier League top scorers list. You know, Taremi in second place has only scored 15 goals, as many as nine goals behind Núñez.
Meanwhile, the Uruguayan striker's performance in the Champions League is also very noteworthy. Consider that Although Benfica is a top team in the national league, its competitiveness in the Champions League has not reached the top level. In the course of the season, Núñez has been a key figure in the Champions League, scoring six goals in the Champions League (he has only started six times), of which it is worth thousands of dollars – against Barca and Bayern, Núñez scored three goals, and in the knockout match against Ajax, Nunez scored another winning goal. Despite being eliminated by Liverpool, Núñez's performance is still extremely high, and he is often seen actively on both the organizational and goal ends.
Núñez's success is not surprising at all, he has both excellent qualities as a top center, can also adapt to the tactical styles of different leagues, and know how to complement his shortcomings in a targeted manner. Today, his influence is by no means limited to the Portuguese arena, but has spread to every corner of European football, and even has been linked to many big teams.
As one of the hottest centre-forwards in the new generation of European football today, Núñez's future will not be limited to Benfica. As long as he stays in his current state, the sky is his limit.
So, fans who don't pay much attention to the Portuguese Premier League must wonder how the Uruguayan teenager, who is only 23 years old this year, can become famous all over Europe in a short period of time?
[Confrontation against non-strengths, the typical representative of the new generation of centers]
In today's world football, the storm of change in the center position has long been set off. In the traditional impression, center forward often means high-intensity physical confrontation and high-altitude coverage ability. With the continuous reform of football tactics, the players in the center position now have different characteristics, and Nunez is undoubtedly a clear representative of them.
From the data point of view, Nunez has only a 47% success rate in ground confrontation this season, and his average number of successful tops per game is only 0.8 times, which can only rank 41st among all players in the same position. Such a low success rate of confrontation is naturally not enough to support Nunez to complete the technical task of being a traditional center forward. Therefore, in order to play its own advantage in other areas, Nunez must develop more technical features in addition to finding space under the attack of defenders.
As a center with a height of 1.87 meters, Nunez is not known for his high-altitude confrontation. On the contrary, the Uruguay international is characterized by his feet.
As shown in the chart above, Nunez has averaged 1.6 times per game in the Portuguese Premier League this season, and although he is not as good as the breakthrough players who are so good, he can still rank first among all the players in the same position in the league. And even in the champions league, Núñez averaged 1.2 passes per game, ranking 4th in the Benfica squad.
Núñez has a good instantaneous burst ability, and can often complete the acceleration in advance in the multiplayer package. At the same time, although the range of activities as a center forward is mainly in the middle, Nunez benefits from a good instantaneous burst speed and can often look for counter-attack opportunities as a major breaking point for the team in the counterattack.
Such examples are evident in many competitions. For example, in Benfica's 3-0 win over Barcelona in the Champions League group stage this season, Núñez faced the Red and Blues and staged such a great play of relying on personal ability to score goals.
As shown in the picture above, After Benfica broke the ball at the back, he did not seek a counterattack through overly complex conduction, but directly found Nunez who was ambushed in the front court with a long pass over the top. The Uruguay international took the ball and cut inside from left to centre, swinging past Spain international Garcia with a quick bike ride and then playing in the near corner.
It is also clear from Núñez's heat map of the season that, despite his role as a centre-forward in most of the games, the Uruguay international's range of activities is by no means limited to the corner of the middle, but includes all corners of the front, with the left side of the field having a greater space of activity.
Similar to the above situation has been reflected in many games, Nunez is not a center who likes to directly confront the defender, he runs relatively flexibly in the no-ball state, hoping to mobilize the overall position of the opposing defense by repeatedly pulling the left and right sides, so as to obtain more room to take the ball. Núñez's operation after taking the ball is also very noteworthy, whether it is a forced shot after the inside cut, or a cross from the outside line, or even a small range of cooperation with teammates is very threatening.
Let's look at the picture above, even against the strong opponent Bayern, Nunez also got the opportunity to break through his own running position. When his teammates counter-attacked with the ball in the middle, Nunez did not blindly insert along the middle of the road, but cleverly swam to the right to pick up the ball, and the middle road was handed over to the teammates who plugged in at the high speed to draw the defensive attention of Bayern's two centre-backs. In this context, although Núñez has been Benfica's bridgehead for a long time, he has not been targeted by Bayern defenders in the state of counterattack, and when his teammates pass the ball to his feet, he can easily adjust his pace to complete the goal.
Nunez is good at pulling the edge, the technical characteristics of running positions can not be formed overnight, as early as the time of South American football, he is still inexperienced in many games, blindly stuck in the middle of the road, lack of flexibility in the position of the embarrassing situation, resulting in the whole game with few opportunities to take the ball, in the defender confrontation is often in the inferior. Against this backdrop, Núñez has entered a period of downturn, and if he cannot complete the position transformation, what awaits the Uruguayan teenager may be the speed of light falling in his career.
In a time of crisis, with his own efforts and the help of his coach, Nunez began to make a tactical transformation. First of all, he did not blindly hone his physical confrontation qualities, because this may slow down his originally characteristic foot dribbling and instantaneous burst speed. On the contrary, Núñez benefited from the team's tailor-made tactical system for him, gradually developing a flexible running consciousness, and can also play a series of dazzling small-range combinations after taking the ball on the wing, and can even rely entirely on personal ability to make high-quality shots that are incisive.
This series of changes is an important reason for Núñez to complete the transformation, he is not one of those column center who is willing to be a bridgehead, and his height of 1.87 meters may be just a cover for him. Whether in the Portuguese Premier League or the Champions League, flexible foot skills and excellent running awareness are the most important reasons why he can shine.
The flexibility of the running position and the delicacy of the feet can certainly add a lot of brilliance to the center. But from another point of view, as a center, scoring goals is the most important task, if there is no efficient ability to grasp the last blow, the previous series of preparations are just useless.
[Different from the efficient grasp ability of age, Nunez's future is worth looking forward to]
Despite being a young player in 1999, Núñez's years of experience have allowed him to grow into a good centre-forward with excellent opportunities. Whether it's the ability to catch the opportunity to grab the point in front of the goal, or the quality of the shot after the inside cut, or even the direct shot after the small range of the periphery in many cases, Núñez can complete it with high quality.
So far, the Uruguayan striker has made 24 league appearances for Benfica this season, scoring 24 goals and averaging one goal per game. It is worth mentioning that he averaged 2.9 shots per game and averaged 1.6 shots per game, the former is not even able to rank first in the same position in the league, but his ability to grasp opportunities is evident in his ability to score such a high number of goals.
In the Champions League competition, Núñez's ability to grasp opportunities has also been verified. He averaged 1.7 shots per game and averaged just 0.8 shots per game, both of which ranked just outside the 20th of all players in the same position. But even though the shooting statistics are not high, Nunez has scored six goals in 10 games, which is one of the most efficient strikers in the Champions League.
Whether facing strong opponents such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Liverpool, or facing opponents who are far weaker than himself, Nunez can dedicate a considerable and stable output ability, which is an important basis for Benfica to advance on all fronts.
[Hidden dangers still exist, and each "buyer" needs to consider it]
Judging from the above author's analysis, Nunez seems to be a perfect center forward candidate. But from another point of view, everything cannot be flawless, and Nunez is certainly a considerable figure on the template of the center, but there are still certain hidden dangers. These hidden dangers depend on the adjustment of his future career, but also need to be carefully considered by clubs who are interested in buying him.
First of all, the author has already highlighted Núñez's more general physical confrontation ability. As a centre-forward, the Uruguay international's ability to "go head-to-head" with opposing defenders in the middle is more average, and there is no way to assume the role of a bridgehead for a regular centre-forward. In other words, Benfica has little ability to directly pick up the ball to find a center, and relies on a large number of midfielders to plug in the dedication of the receiving point. The more general physical confrontation and high-altitude ball ability allow Núñez to often pull the edge sharply in the game, on the one hand, it allows him to avoid the targeted restrictions of the defender, but on the other hand, it also keeps the team in a vacuum for a long time, requiring the non-stop insertion of his teammates.
In other words, if Nunez wants to form the current state of being in the water, it actually needs a huge tactical tilt of the club. The almost "deformed" position on the field gives the defender a chance to follow when staring at him, and if his own midfield is not strong enough to contribute to the long-term stable back insertion strength, Nunez will still be deeply trapped in the muscle forest of the opposing defender, and his physical disadvantages will be fully exposed.
In addition, Nunez's foot skills are outstanding among the centers, but it does not mean that he can have a complete advantage against some smart full-backs and backs. Through the observation of many games, we found that today's major opponents have targeted restrictions on the technical characteristics of the Uruguay international, often arranging some full-backs with more flexible foot technology and faster turning speed to target the defense, and even rely on the rapid pulling edge of the back in many cases to form a 2-on-1 effective defense.
In this context, Núñez's foot technology, although outstanding, could not complete the breakthrough under the multi-person bag. On many occasions, the Uruguayan centre-forward was unable to form an effective breakthrough even in a one-on-one situation, and instead wasted a lot of ball possession. In this context, the pullback of the back further limits Núñez's possibility of taking the ball, once his pulling attribute is completely frozen, Nuñez's wandering in the middle of the road is more difficult, the team's attack will be completely deadlocked, and can only rely on the counterattack with a low success rate to seek good opportunities.
For the major teams, relying entirely on counterattacks will not be the first choice. If you want to rationally develop the offensive attributes of Núñez, you must not only match him with an all-round offensive system, but even let your own midfield make a lot of position concessions for him. For such a young player, it is still unknown whether he can handle such a large tactical tilt on a higher stage.
Therefore, I think that even Nunez has achieved full results on many stages. But from another point of view, his hidden dangers are also very obvious. In other words, looking at the top centers in the history of world football, whether it is the past Big Luo or the now popular Levan, they are not players who are "fresh in one move and eat all over the world", but have outstanding personal ability in different fields.
If Nunez wants to go to a higher level, in addition to maintaining the current competitive advantage, he also needs to moderately develop his physical fitness and strengthen his physical confrontation ability. In this way, even if the opponent restricts one of his characteristics, he can flexibly change his technical characteristics.
On the whole, Núñez's game process now shows a trend of polarization. First of all, be able to seize the once-in-a-lifetime scoring opportunity and score goals in the process of playing against many world-class giants. But on the other hand, there are some struggles in the course of many games. The extremely low success rate of physical confrontation, coupled with the sense of powerlessness after targeted restrictions, allows him to rely on his own ballless running to seek a fatal blow, and his contribution to the organizational strategy end and even the fulcrum can only be described as lackluster.
【Conclusion】
There are talented people in the jiangshan generation, each leading the way for hundreds of years. After Levan and Suarez, there are many new generations of powerful centers in world football. Nunez is undoubtedly one of the most noteworthy of these, the Uruguayan star debuted in South America, landed in Europe at a young age, has a wealth of experience in the second division, and has not rushed to land in the five major leagues, but continues to hone his skills in Benfica.
Today, he already has both goal scoring ability and flexible running position, and the shortcomings are also very obvious. As I said before, if you want to become a true all-round striker and gain the attention of those world-class giants, Nunez can not only rely on the achievements he has achieved today, he should continue to develop and gradually strengthen his weaknesses. Only in this way can he really leave the Portuguese arena in the future and launch an impact on the highest stage of world football.