{"id":326057,"date":"2025-08-07T20:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326057\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T20:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:13:09","slug":"misses-fall-outs-and-late-goals-darwin-nunezs-liverpool-ride-was-eventful-one-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326057\/","title":{"rendered":"Misses, fall-outs and late goals: Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s Liverpool ride was eventful one | Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

It started with a goal to clinch the Community Shield<\/a> against Manchester City on his Liverpool debut and a red card for a head-butt<\/a> on his Anfield bow. There were glaring misses, falling-outs and some telling contributions in between, before it ended with Liverpool taking a rare financial hit on a one-time club record signing. Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez never reached the heights J\u00fcrgen Klopp predicted he would, but it was an eventful three-year ride that ensures the striker is poised to depart<\/a> in the affections of many at Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Klopp led the signing of N\u00fa\u00f1ez before and especially after his two appearances for Benfica against Liverpool in the 2021-22 Champions League. But he was not the only Liverpool coach to be sold on the Uruguay international\u2019s talents, become frustrated by attempts to accommodate the forward and ultimately sideline him. Arne Slot<\/a> followed an identical path with the mercurial 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

N\u00fa\u00f1ez was out of favour long before Klopp left Anfield in May 2024, starting just one of the former Liverpool<\/a> manager\u2019s last seven games and cutting a disillusioned figure throughout. There was talk of Liverpool cutting their losses 12 months ago.<\/p>\n

Instead, one of Slot\u2019s first acts as Liverpool head coach was to have a video call with N\u00fa\u00f1ez while he was on Copa Am\u00e9rica duty with Uruguay. The striker was flourishing under Marcelo Bielsa and Slot hoped he could also unlock the player\u2019s explosive qualities on a more consistent basis. Getting to work on N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s fragile confidence, Slot outlined how the forward would be central to his plans \u2013 literally \u2013 operating as Liverpool\u2019s No 9 and not out on the left, where he was sometimes deployed by Klopp.<\/p>\n

Six months later, if not before, and Liverpool\u2019s head coach had reached the same conclusions as his predecessor. It was not a simple case of N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s erratic finishing driving Slot to distraction and falling short of the standards of a team chasing the Premier League and Champions League titles, although the latter point is undoubtedly true. It was also, as Slot was happy to outline in public, a question of style. The explanation he offered in January provides an insight into what Liverpool have sought to address and will continue to do so in this transfer window, with a replacement for N\u00fa\u00f1ez wanted and a \u00a3110m offer for Alexander Isak remaining on Newcastle\u2019s table. Slot wants more flexibility and N\u00fa\u00f1ez was not able to provide it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarwin is a striker we have to use in a certain way,\u201d said Slot, \u201cand we were not able yet to bring the best out of him this season. He has a lot of pace but, unfortunately for him, most teams sit back a lot against us. We are still working on getting him in the best possible positions against a low block. That involves the right timings, the right crosses, the right position to start from and making the right run.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot (right), criticised N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s work rate in February but there has been no faulting the forward\u2019s effort in pre-season. Photograph: Adam Davy\/PA<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours after Slot\u2019s admission, N\u00fa\u00f1ez came off the bench to score two stoppage-time goals in a 2-0 victory at Brentford<\/a> that gave Liverpool their first league win of 2025. After a faltering start to the calendar year, it was an important step on the road to the club\u2019s 20th league title. An outrageous chipped finish in the corresponding fixture the season before was another reminder of his ability. But it was not showcased consistently enough. After the double at Brentford there would be only one more goal from N\u00fa\u00f1ez in his final 20 appearances for Liverpool, the equaliser that turned the tide against bottom-of-the-table Southampton. He could also have been sent off in that game.<\/p>\n

N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s injury-time rescue act against Brentford and Slot\u2019s honest assessment of the striker\u2019s problems came in the same month he pushed to leave Liverpool. He and his representatives wanted Liverpool to accept a \u00a360m offer from Al-Nassr, not reject it as the club prioritised winning the Premier League over cashing in. The same message was relayed to Liverpool this summer.<\/p>\n

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Slot criticised N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s work rate \u2013 a key factor in retaining the goodwill of many Liverpool supporters \u2013 against Wolves and Aston Villa in February. Slot denied dropping the player from the squad against West Ham in April as a result of a training ground row with a member of his coaching staff. There has been no faulting the forward\u2019s application and effort this pre-season. N\u00fa\u00f1ez returned in excellent shape and has looked sharp in friendlies, though it was clearly time for all parties to move on.<\/p>\n

Liverpool are likely to lose in excess of \u00a320m on N\u00fa\u00f1ez. The Anfield club paid a guaranteed \u00a365m for his services in 2022 with a further \u00a320m in add-ons. Several bonus payments, however, such as for winning the Champions League and after a specified number of starts, were never activated. Al-Hilal have agreed to pay \u00a346.3m plus add-ons and give a striker in the prime of his career a three-year contract. A lucrative move for N\u00fa\u00f1ez and a statement signing for the Saudi Pro League, no doubt, but also a waste of a headline-grabbing act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It started with a goal to clinch the Community Shield against Manchester City on his Liverpool debut and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-326057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114989315050409449","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}