Powerhouse strikers Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez will have big impact in Premier League
Time for the Premier League’s leading lights to adjust their eyelines. Two big, lofty, muscular and hungry strikers are about to distance the best two clubs in the toughest domestic league in football from the rest of English football’s top division. And it will be hard to miss them.
Darwin Nunez, the latest star from that fertile nursery that is Uruguayan goalscorers, has touched down in Liverpool to complete the formalities of a transfer that could be worth up to €90 million ($93.8m) to the selling club, Benfica. As Nunez was introducing himself to Anfield staff, Manchester City unveiled Erling Haaland, whose transfer from Borussia Dortmund was agreed some weeks ago.
It will not be long before they are each being pictured at pre-season practice among the established senior players at their ground-breaking new clubs. That’s when one of the shared features of these two freshmen will become very apparent.
Haaland, who turns 22 next month, is a towering 1.94 metres; Nunez, nearly 23, stands at 1.88m. Besides the injection of youth these deals represent, and the confidence City and Liverpool hold that these are footballers with many years to continue their prolific scoring, they indicate a significant change in style at both teams – or at least alternatives in the ways City and Liverpool transition from defence to attack.
Haaland and Nunez have the imposing frames, the balance and an agility on the turn to finesse the way Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp’s sides counter-attack. The goalkeepers, Ederson and Alisson, both prized for their accurate, long-range distribution, will be among the first to take note.
Where Alisson, and the likes of Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been used to spraying their longer