Since his debut in the Premier League, Erling Haaland has been the league standard when it comes to goal scoring. However, Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp have been working on their own lethal weapon to counter Pep Guardiola’s strategy.

Against LASK and West Ham United in the previous week alone, that remedy has been used often this season.

Darwin Nez has been compared to Haaland ever since he was signed. Coming to two of England’s best teams in the same summer, comparisons were unavoidable.

But in the end, it’s safe to conclude that only Haaland lived up to the anticipation of the pilot. When compared to his own expectations, Nez was much behind.

Even in a precise system like Klopp’s gegenpressing one at Anfield, it may take time to integrate a striker with Nez’s level of production. Thankfully, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Nez has a pattern of starting off quietly at a club before erupting in a big way. He struggled in his first season with Benfica, scoring only 14 goals, but then exploded in his second.

Now, given his performance this season so far, it seems that past is likely to repeat itself.

From the time he stepped foot on the field during preseason, Nez seemed to be a man with a goal in mind. In the exhibition games, he scored many goals and presented himself as a formidable opponent.

Now, Nez has maintained this level of performance in the regular season as well. The Uruguayan has already shown to be clutch on many occasions this season, scoring a critical brace to turn the game around against Newcastle, assisting against Aston Villa, and scoring midweek against LASK (along with another assist).

However, Klopp could have easily sent him to the bench for the game against West Ham. It was risky to play him in back-to-back games after he picked up an injury during the international break.

However, the reward outweighed the danger.

Liverpool had another clutch performance from the Uruguayan with Nez’s goal that put them ahead.

Nez now contributes to a goal per 52 minutes for his side, which is faster than the ‘just’ one every 87 minutes that Haaland has managed so far.

Nez is right on Haaland’s heels, contributing to six goals while being three goals behind the Norwegian despite playing 463 more minutes.

Although he has been slow to get going in a Liverpool uniform, Nez has shown that he is unstoppable once he finds his golden grasp at both Benfica and Liverpool. The Reds would want to see the same trend at their home stadium, Anfield.