Ken Early: Dealing with social media ridicule now one of the biggest battles for a top–level player

The intensity of Darwin Nuñez’s celebration caught the eye — it could hardly have been more passionate if he had just scored a goal to win the World Cup for Uruguay. Nobody has ever been this excited to realise they are just about to win the Community Shield. This was plainly the celebration of a man who was acutely aware that he had become an overnight worldwide laughing stock after — checks notes — some bad touches in preseason.

The interesting thing is not so much that fans make fun of other teams’ expensive signings — this has always happened. It’s that the mockery so clearly reaches and affects the players. In this case Nuñez responded positively to the pressure, but not every player will. It’s all very well saying things like “social media is not the real world” — but it happens to be the world most of the players live in, and just because criticism is stupid doesn’t mean it has no impact.

Virgil van Dijk confirmed the impression that Nuñez had been rattled by the ridicule when he explained what his own message had been to the striker: “Don’t focus on what the outside world is saying. Head down, work and score goals — be important for the club.”

[ Ken Early’s season preview: Will Erling Haaland have the patience for Pep Guardiola’s rewiring? ]

The memeing of Nuñez had obviously annoyed Jürgen Klopp, who took the opportunity to restate how stupid he believes it is.

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“We live in a world where everybody gets judged on first sight,” he said when asked about Nuñez’s contribution. “That’s not helpful for nobody, but it happens. Both teams were not 100 per cent of their usual physical situation, but in the first few games we were not even close to the fitness level today. When he came on we passed each ball for him to chase it. After the third ball he was completely killed and then everybody judges his first touches and these kinds of things, it’s just a joke. But we have to live with that.”

You can tell that Klopp doesn’t know much about social media. He seems to be disappointed that people are not being reasonable — but the way players are spoken about on social media has got nothing to do with fairness or honesty. Increasingly it hardly even has anything to do with football.

Dealing with perpetual malicious ridicule must now be one of the hardest things about being a top — level player. Few have been as candid as Ángel Di María, who admitted in 2018 that the subject had come up in conversations with his therapist: “The memes to the players of the national team hurt us a lot ... you see the family suffer, because they give you support but also suffer for you.” But if players are reluctant to talk about it maybe it’s because they believe it would probably just make things worse.

There was irony in the fact that both Klopp and Pep Guardiola, who could hardly be more collectivist and team — oriented in the way they think about the game, had to spend most of their post-match press conferences talking about the issues of their respective star forwards.

A journalist pointed out that Erling Haaland’s late miss — a shot against the bar from six yards with Liverpool’s goalkeeper grounded and helpless — would be a massive viral hit, and wondered whether Guardiola would encourage Haaland to watch it again or to ignore it. Guardiola looked irritated by the question. “He is strong. Mis-hit, the other time he’s gonna put it in the net, so what is the problem? It’s football.”

The City manager won’t worry that Haaland missed in a situation where nine times out of 10 he would score. Despite the unfortunate events of the 97th minute, there is no doubt whatsoever about Haaland’s ability to smash the ball into an unguarded net from six yards.

More concerning for Guardiola is that Haaland looked so disconnected from the team. He hardly touched the ball in the first half and finished with 16 touches altogether. Julian Alvarez managed 14 after coming on in the 57th minute.

There’s no doubt that Haaland will score a lot of goals for City, but that doesn’t necessarily improve a side that scored 99 in the league goals last season. His connection to the rest of the team is the thing to watch, because Guardiola prizes control more than mere goals. You can outscore teams with goals, but control is how Guardiola teams win.

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[ Darwin Núñez shows his worth as Liverpool beat Manchester City to win Community Shield ]

[ ‘It was good, it was really good’ - Jurgen Klopp impressed with Darwin Núñez in Community Shield win ]

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Maybe Guardiola’s most disappointing season as a manager was 2011—12, which ended with him resigning at Barcelona. That was the season when Lionel Messi scored 73 goals in all competitions — his best — ever personal tally — but the only competition Barcelona actually won was the Spanish Cup.

English football history likewise shows that having the top scorer in your team is no guarantee of success. The top scorer has played for the league title winners in only 30 out of 122 seasons. The last Golden Boot winner to win the league in the same season was Robin van Persie with Manchester United in 2013. The best teams tend to spread the goals around.

Ilkay Gündogan gave a typically perceptive answer when asked by ITV whether City would have beaten Real Madrid last season with Haaland in their team. “Honestly, I would say no. Because I don’t think we’ve lost the game because we didn’t have a physical striker. I believe we lost the game because we didn’t play mature enough in the last minutes ... To concede two goals in the last five minutes of the game is definitely something that should not happen.”

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But social media discourse generally lacks Gündogan’s subtle understanding of the game. If Haaland goes three games without scoring, or ends up watching from the bench while Phil Foden or Alvarez plays false nine, the whole internet will be screaming at Guardiola that he simply has to Feed the Goat.

As for Darwin Nuñez, if he thought his performance and goal would bring temporary respite from the meme onslaught, he was wrong. Already a photo was doing the rounds which seemed to show him weeping uncontrollably as he bit down on his Community Shield medal, inviting people to wonder what kind of idiot would lose the head like this over a glorified friendly.

The photo was doctored, but the people trying to point this out in the comments were merely adding to the buzz of engagement. Borne aloft eagle-like by the algorithm, the fake photo was doing five-digit numbers.