“I don’t think it’s wise…” – Paul Merson insists one Liverpool player cannot start v Ipswich

According to Paul Merson, Arne Slot ought to alter Liverpool’s starting lineup from the squad that played Lille in the middle of the week by at least one player today. Darwin Nunez received a start in the Champions League on Tuesday, just his second in all competitions since the beginning of January, as a reward for his stoppage-time salvo against Brentford the previous weekend. Citing an apparent detrimental effect on one of his teammates, the Sky Sports analyst believes the 25-year-old should return to the bench for this afternoon’s match against Ipswich.

Merson demands that Nunez leave the starting lineup.

“I know Darwin Nunez made a fantastic cameo off the bench against Brentford, but I’m still not sure he should start this game as the center-forward,” Merson said in his most recent Premier League predictions column for Sportskeeda.

Nunez will probably begin today in spite of Merson’s recommendations.

We disagree with Merson’s assertion that Nunez’s beginning affects Salah’s performance because, in our opinion, the two forwards worked well together against Lille on Tuesday. We believe Slot will continue to trust the Uruguayan to lead the line today because Diogo Jota is injured, Luis Diaz has not played at his best as a center-forward in previous games, and Federico Chiesa is still being carefully monitored. We wouldn’t be worried about starting the 25-year-old again today afternoon even though he may have played the entire 90 minutes in midweek. He hasn’t been flogged to the same degree as Ryan Gravenberch, for example.

The ideal situation would be for Nunez to score one or two more goals for Liverpool to be in a strong enough position to call him off the field around the 60-65 minute mark. This would allow Chiesa to get a good amount of playing time before potentially starting against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday. “When Nunez is not on the team, Mohamed Salah plays better! I think that when Nunez stays up front, it makes Salah feel a little cramped.

Nunez is a capable player in open play. At the end, when it was like an end-to-end basketball game, we witnessed that against Brentford. I don’t think Nunez is a good choice in a match like the one against Ipswich coming up, when the visitors are probably going to put ten men behind the ball.Merson has explained why he benched the Reds’ number nine today, but considering how well Slot has used his players, we fully trust the head coach to pick the lineup he believes has the best chance of winning this game.

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