09/08/2025

SPORTS SATURDAY | AUG 9, 2025

29

Ű BY RICHARD JOLLY

Liverpool Darwin Nunez (left) rounds Preston goalkeeper Daniel Iversen to score during a pre-season friendly match. – REUTERSPIC

I N one respect, Darwin Nunez replaced Sadio Mane, in another Roberto Firmino. When he left the Anfield pitch, probably for the last time in a Liverpool shirt, he was replaced by Lewis Koumas. He was given a standing ovation by many, along with a final blast of the chant of “Nunez”, as he came off in Monday’s pre-season friendly against Athletic Bilbao’s second team. It was a fond farewell, but also an anticlimac tic one for the man who, when he joined, arrived with the expectation that comes with being Liverpool’s record signing. He had the deceptive debut, when he scored and Manchester City’s striking newcomer Erling Haaland did not, in the Community Shield; since then the Uruguayan delivered another 39 goals in competitive games, the Norwegian 124. The comparison was long since abandoned. When each came to England in 2022, Nunez as Firmino’s long-term successor and as Mane was joining Bayern Munich, it did not escape attention that he cost more than Haaland – an initial £64 million (RM371m), potentially £85 million (RM493m) – albeit with a significantly lower salary. So a transfer to Al-Hilal for a guaranteed £46.2 million (RM374m), and perhaps more, represents both a significant loss and yet a fine bit of business by Liverpool. S e l l i n g Nunez to Al

Farewell, Nunez, Liverpool’s magnificently ridiculous footballer Thanks for the memories memories

nature, approaching the role of centre-forward in the man ner of a runaway horse.

Hilal seems a case of damage limita tion. Those with a basic grasp of maths may note, too, that the fees being recouped for Nunez and Luis Diaz come to just over £110 million (RM683m), or about the amount Liverpool offered Newcastle for Alexander Isak. The applause at Anfield on Monday, however, was not for Liverpool’s prow ess at negotiating. Nunez goes having created memories, many of them unfor gettable. He offered constant entertain ment, much of it stemming from his innate unpredictabil ity. There are compila tion videos of many a forward’s goals online; in Nunez’s case, there are series of clips of his misses, some of them extraordinary. His goals could be brilliant, too, though one of the more perti nent comments came from Michael Owen after a chip at Brentford in February 2024: “A one-in 10, two-in-10 finish at best,” he said, wondering why Nunez hadn’t taken a simpler approach. But then, some would say, he wouldn’t be Darwin Nunez. He was a magnificently ridiculous footballer.

2022 Champions League tie against Benfica. Klopp always liked players with a super strength, and Nunez’s pace, height and relent lessness were three. But Klopp also had a huge influence in trans fers back then; Liverpool’s former director of research, Ian Graham, said the German pre ferred Nunez over Isak. He bought the Uruguayan as Michael Edwards was leaving: the sense is that Fenway Sports Group’s data and statistics model did not point to Nunez as Firmino’s successor. The red card on his Anfield debut, for head butting Crystal Palace’s Joachim Andersen, constituted a false start. Nunez’s first two seasons brought 15 and 18 goals respectively – respectable but not remark able – but with a question of where to use him and if he was reliable. He spent a spell in 2022-23 on the left wing, Klopp not really trusting him with the tactical demands of the role in the middle. In public, Klopp excelled at looking indul gent and understanding rather than frustrated with Nunez, even though his wayward finishing was often an issue. By the end, it felt as if even he gave up on Nunez, starting him in just one of his last seven games. He only began eight League matches under Slot, who preferred Diogo Jota and the con verted winger Diaz as strikers. The Dutchman’s football was less chaotic than Klopp’s; he did not operate on the princi ple that if Nunez wreaked enough havoc, the goals would come, even if they were for some one else. He showed a willingness to rebuke Nunez in press conferences; the striker wanted to leave in January. He never learnt much English. It became clearer that a Klopp project did not suit Slot’s style of football. Nunez scored a mere seven goals in 47 appearances last season (he left with seven in 57, going back further, and the goal before then was a clearance by Sheffield United keeper Ivo Grbic that rebounded in off his thigh). He departs the Premier League with the idiosyncratic stat that no one who hit the woodwork so often – 14 times – did so in anything like as few minutes. But, in their own way, the Liverpool crowd may miss him while opposing defenders may not: there were days when Nunez seemed unstoppable, except by his inability to hit the target. The Saudi Pro-League won’t know what is about to hit it. – The Independent

essentially uncontrollable and that no one – op ponents, teammates, managers or Nunez him self – knew what was coming next. The definitive Nunez performance may have come in January 2024’s 4-1 win against Chelsea. Nunez ran Chelsea ragged but didn’t score. He did, however, contrive to hit the wood work four times, a Premier League record for a single match. Which conformed to a theme: Nunez would average more shots per 90 minutes than anyone else in the division. He was so far clear in his first two sea sons at

Every now and again, a contrarian would argue that, actually, it was all planned, that Nunez knew what he was doing. Then he would do something quintessen tially anar chic to s h o w t h a t w a s

Liverpool that he was essentially off the charts. It

illustrated how hard he was to contain. Which Jurgen Klopp had noted when he trou bled Virgil van Dijk in t h e

Before he was con signed to the bench by Arne Slot, every game seemed to revolve around Nunez. He was agent of chaos, force of

Darwin Nunez. – REUTERSPIC