Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah have already formed a powerful partnership for Liverpool

The opening goal in Liverpool’s 2-0 win against Everton was a classic Reds counter-attack. The move set a new Premier League record for the fastest goal scored from a woodwork into the end of the pitch.

While Mohamed Salah was no doubt grateful for the bizarre positioning of Blues goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, the Egyptian knew who he really owed his 100th league goal at Anfield. As his teammates swamped him for the Kop, Salah looked to break free to deliver one of his signature assist points to Darwin Nunez.

He was the one who had carried the ball for half court as he dodged challenges to bring it perfectly to Salah. He has remained a campaign theme and one that can certainly help Liverpool through the rest of the 2022/23 season.

Nunez now has four assists for the Reds, equaling the tally he recorded in his last season at Benfica. They’ve all scored goals for Salah, but considering he’s the Uruguayan’s most frequent teammate at Liverpool (along with Alisson Becker), he’s not surprising. Thanks to the No11’s remarkable fitness record, Nunez played just 145 minutes for the Reds without Salah also being on the pitch.

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The goals they scored also mostly came in the big games. Nunez assisted Salah against Fulham (in his Premier League debut), Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City (in the Carabao Cup) and Everton. With two early goals and two draws, they were all major successes.

Thanks in part to Nunez’s erratic form in front of goal, there were no assists in the opposite direction. However, OptaJoe recently revealed that the duo have been the best chance-making combination in the Premier League this season.

While the assists only flowed one way, it was a fairly close partnership overall, with Salah setting up 12 chances for Nunez and eight the other way. For comparison: the combination of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland is creatively weighted at 17:3 for the Belgian. The Reds pair were also comfortably Liverpool’s best partner at 13 to generate clear chances in all competitions in 2022/23; Trent Alexander-Arnold and Nunez come second with seven, and unsurprisingly all but one have played at right-back to striker.

With the pair’s pairing still relatively in its infancy, it wouldn’t be surprising to see their potency cool off with a larger sample size. Likewise, their relationship is expected to improve over time and it’s by no means as if they’ve played in the best version of Liverpool.

As noted by OptaJoe, Nunez and Salah have created a chance every 52 minutes in the league this season. The latter had only one partnership with the Reds producing more shots, and that was with Daniel Sturridge (49 minutes per chance). However, such was the misery of the England international’s injuries that Salah shared the field with Nunez for some time.

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