Captain chaos! Darwin Nunez is the Premier League's most entertaining player - but his finishing could cost Liverpool the title

Whether you're a Liverpool fan willing to defend him to the hilt, or a rival supporter that revels in ridiculing the £64 million ($79m) signing, nobody is ever left unsatisfied after watching Nunez in action because the chances are that by the time the full-time whistle blows, he will have managed to validate the two wildly contrasting takes on his talent.

His two recent outings against Toulouse and Bournemouth are perfect cases in point. Against the former, he took a pass from Diogo Jota in his stride, nimbly cut inside Rasmus Nicolaisen before cleverly rounding the onrushing Guillaume Restes to leave himself with an open goal. Darwin hit the post from roughly 10 yards out.

Less than a week later, after arguably his most impressive all-round performance in a Red shirt to date, against Nottingham Forest, he came off the bench in a League Cup tie at Bournemouth. Nunez won the game with a stunning curling finish from wide on the left wing - but he had only been forced out to the flank after mis-controlling the ball beforehand, prompting Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher to proclaim Nunez 'Captain Chaos!'.

This, then, is the duality of Darwin, an almost unimaginably divisive player that appears made for the modern era of hot takes and knee-jerk reactions; a game-changer that is as likely to delight as dumbfound - but never, ever fails to entertain.

The question, though, is whether Nunez is really right for Liverpool - and former defender Jose Enrique is among those who have already made their mind up on the unpredictable Uruguayan.

"He's never going to be a world-class striker, especially with the way Liverpool play," the retired Red told Grosvenor Sport. "He's 24 now – it's not as if he's still 19 or something. I think Darwin is a good player, but ever since he's arrived, I've never viewed him as a starting player for Liverpool.

"If you want to win the Premier League, Darwin cannot be your starting No.9. He doesn't suit the way Jurgen Klopp plays.

"If you are a counter-attacking team, that would suit him, then he could kill opposition sides. However, high pressing and front-foot intensity isn't for him."

Nunez certainly looked unsuited to Klopp's demanding style of play during his first season at Anfield.

From an offensive perspective, it was clear that he had something to offer - even accounting for his poor finishing. His pace posed plenty of problems for opponents, which is why he was sometimes deployed on the left flank. But Klopp clearly felt that he wasn't troubling defenders enough without the ball - a cardinal sin in the German's eyes.

Consequently, the January arrival of Cody Gakpo, coupled with the return to form and fitness of Diogo Jota, saw Darwin fall to Liverpool's third-choice No.9 by the season's end, reduced to the role of impact sub in the Premier League, only a viable option off the bench when Klopp wanted to introduce a little anarchy into the proceedings.

Even during a productive pre-season campaign for Nunez, Klopp wasn't making any promises about a promotion to his preferred starting line-up.

"It's the same situation for Darwin and all the other strikers," the Reds boss told reporters after a 4-0 win over Leicester. "I know all about the quality they have but they need to do both – defend, and be influential in all offensive situations."

It was still surprising to see him begin Liverpool's first three Premier League matches on the bench. But things changed after his third substitute appearance, with Nunez earning a 10-man Liverpool three points in a stunning come-from-behind 2-1 win at Newcastle with two uncharacteristically emphatic finishes.

Even then, a starting spot wasn't assured but he slowly but surely moved to the front of the pecking order after his heroics at St James' Park, albeit partially thanks in part to both an injury to Gakpo and Jota being forced to fill in on the left wing for Luis Diaz during the kidnapping nightmare that befell the Colombian's family.

Diaz, of course, returned to action against Luton last weekend and rescued a point from a game that Liverpool most likely would have won had Nunez not somehow ballooned the ball over the bar when he had the goal at his mercy following an unintentional knockdown from Salah.

It was a miss so staggering that it inevitably provoked further ridicule, and plenty of comments like those made by Jose Enrique questioning Nunez's ability to lead a title challenge.

However, while Nunez was inevitably made the scapegoat for a fortuitous 1-1 draw with a newly promoted team - he's been targeted by trolls since his very first appearance for Liverpool in a friendly against United last summer - there were bigger flaws on show at Kenilworth Road than the forward's wayward finishing.

Structurally, Liverpool still don't look quite right - not with Alexis Mac Allister, a technically gifted and industrious attacking midfielder still being deployed in front of a back four that remains worryingly vulnerable to counterattacks.

As Carragher pointed out on Sky Sports, the resurgent Reds still look two players shy of a title challenge: a specialist No.6 and a versatile defender capable of covering for Trent Alexander-Arnold when the full-back goes roaming, either down the flank or into central areas.

Furthermore, Liverpool don't technically need a prolific No.9 - they certainly didn't have one during their most recent spell of sustained success, when Roberto Firmino's primary task, as he admits himself in the book he released this week, was to bring the best out of the two prolific wingers either side of him, Salah and Sadio Mane.

And Klopp was quick to point out after the Luton game that Darwin is much more in tune with his team-mates this term. "What makes him really different," the manager told reporters, "is that he's involved in pretty much everything, so that's good."

Nunez admitted himself in February that he had yet to perform like the player that had tormented Liverpool's defenders in a Champions League tie last year, the player that Klopp had fallen "in love" with. But we have certainly seen more and more flashes of his Benfica brilliance in the past few months.

Nonetheless, there's no getting away from the fact that he cannot continue missing open goals if he is to remain Liverpool's No.9 for a significant period of time. Such chances can so often be the difference between one point and three, thus making them vital to teams with title aspirations - which is precisely what Liverpool are again.

In that sense, the new, improved Nunez is still not quite good enough. He simply does not convert enough chances (a paltry 12.5 percent in the Premier League this season) - or 'big chances' (23%) - to be mentioned in the same breath as proven Premier League goalscorers such as Haaland, Son Heung-min and Salah, or even his rivals for a starting spot, Jota and Gakpo.

On the plus side, Daniel Sturridge, unlike Jose Enrique, is adamant that Nunez, even at 24, can still improve his finishing. "He just needs to be coached,” the former Liverpool striker said on Sky Sports. “He needs to do training sessions where he's making those runs at pace and practising particular types of finishes when he's doing it at match tempo, because it does seem like he’s not composed or relaxing."

It's definitely an issue, one that Klopp has raised with Nunez himself. Time and time again last season, the manager impressed upon the fiery forward to cool down, to work on his composure, particularly in front of goal. The dream was to help Nunez attain Haaland's Zen-like state when shooting, so there's quite clearly still plenty of work to be done on that front.

But progress has been made. Nunez obviously remains worryingly raw, as Michael Owen has been at pains to point out, but the world-class potential is more obvious than ever before. He's presently well on track to better last season's goals and assists tallies, and could well become the "nightmare for defenders" that Sturridge enjoys watching.

But can Klopp really calm Captain Chaos? It's appropriately impossible to predict. There is still only one certainty when it comes to the Premier League's most compelling character: more entertainment - both for his adoring fans and his harshest critics.