Having been involved in all four of Liverpool’s goals against Tottenham, to varying degrees, the frustration was obvious for Mohamed Salah when he was denied a fifth in stoppage time.

With the Reds having to withstand a late onslaught from Tottenham at 4-2, Salah’s through ball to Darwin Nunez saw the substitute eventually thwarted by Guglielmo Vicario, who launched himself at the striker’s effort on the edge of his box to stop the striker from claiming a first goal in eight matches.

Salah’s initial frustrations eventually gave way to an appreciation of his team-mate’s run and it meant little in the grand scheme of things as Liverpool wrapped up three points in the penultimate home game of Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield career.

But that’s kind of how it has been for Nunez of late, close enough but still lacking a clinical edge when it most matters. The ball he laid on for Salah to make it 5-2 late on was a similar issue, having strayed just offside before the pass across the face of goal.

For a big-money striker whose last goal came when he charged down a clearance from Sheffield United goalkeeper Ivo Grbic before seeing it go in off his backside over a month ago now, the inability to convert has become a glaring issue and one that was magnified during an abject April when treble dreams turn to dust.

On another day, Nunez might have had a goal and an assist to show for his late cameo but that is the very conundrum itself, perfectly distilled into a 15-minute display. There’s no lack of effort or desire from the Uruguay international but the clarity of thought or the finesse of the finish needed to turn opportunities into goals has been absent too often for some.

And at a fee that now stands at a club-record-equalling £75m, the cause for concern is now legitimate for those who are increasingly questioning whether those rough edges will ever be smoothed out.

It feels somewhat churlish and even cruel to be dissecting Nunez’s cameo in such detail on a day when he was barely involved in a strange but largely enjoyable Anfield afternoon for supporters, but the subsequent deletion of his Liverpool-specific posts on social media on Sunday was always going to lead to fevered speculation over the intentions behind the move.

For those who place little stock on the importance of social media – like Klopp, for example – it is a non-story. But for a 24-year-old regular user of such platforms to remove all of his Reds-related posts on Instagram, it must be considered significant. Even more so when you factor in that Nunez has also been blocking certain Liverpool-centric fan accounts on Twitter to boot.

This, after all, is a player who wasted little time using such platforms to send his first message as a Liverpool player nearly two years ago when he spoke of ‘resiliencia’ (resilience) following some harsh critiques of a pre-season performance against Manchester United. That post came after a four-goal haul against RB Leipzig and was widely interpreted as a firm riposte to the naysayers.

Nunez will mark his two-year anniversary as a Liverpool man next month and it’s difficult to assess where he really stands presently given few players have polarised quite like the speedy centre-forward. His detractors see the loose touches, wayward finishing and inability to stay onside as cast iron reasons for why he will never unlock his true potential.

Those who champion his case argue his 18 goals and 13 assists as someone who can contribute to a winning Liverpool team for the long haul. In the world of social media, however, which is a place Nunez obviously places great value in, there is little scope for sensible and nuanced debate.

But should the real assessment be that the former Benfica striker is in fact somewhere in the vast, sprawling middle ground between him being an awesome force of nature and cumbersome, expensive write-off? A player capable of being a hugely useful weapon for new manager Arne Slot without ever being the main man to fire them to the game’s biggest honours?

Perhaps the great irony of all this is that Nunez’s biggest problem is one that is not of his own making. Liverpool bet the house on the South American nearly two years ago, sanctioning an initial outlay of £64m with a further £21m in potential add-ons.

Had that fee been more reflective of players like Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota, at fees between £37m and £50m, then the wider analysis might be undertaken in a less harsh light.