Jump to content
  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

Should we sign him?   

169 members have voted

  1. 1. Should we sign him?



Recommended Posts

Darwin Núñez: Liverpool director of football flies to Portugal to complete deal

Julian Ward hopes to land the Uruguay forward for about £8 million less than Benfica’s present valuation
 
updated
Benfica want £68 million up front for the striker
Benfica want £68 million up front for the striker
GETTY IMAGES
The Sunday Times

Liverpool’s director of football is in Portugal to try to persuade Benfica to lower their up-front asking price for Darwin Núñez to nearer £60 million.

 

Julian Ward’s determination to oversee a breakthrough in a deal for the Uruguay striker is such that he is now conducting face-to-face discussions with Benfica’s key decision-makers, Rui Pedro Braz and Rui Costa.

 

Benfica are seeking £68 million plus add-ons, which would take the total valuation of Núñez up to £85 million (about €100 million).

 

Liverpool will not meet that £68 million figure and negotiations are centred on persuading the Portuguese club to lower their valuation of the 22-year-old.

 

The Anfield club also want to ensure bonuses for Benfica are linked to future player and team achievements. As it stands, Benfica are seeking add-ons which are dependent on appearances.

 

With the structure of the deal outstanding, no transfer has been agreed — although Liverpool remain hopeful of signing Núñez.

 

There is an expectation that matters will run over into next week given a medical would also have to be arranged for the player, who has been on international duty. Contrary to reports, Liverpool have not asked for Núñez to be released from the Uruguay squad before their game with Panama on Saturday evening.

 

Personal terms will not be a problem and the fact that Núñez will not be one of the highest earners at the club is a reason why Liverpool will pay such a significant transfer fee.

 

Liverpool know the player wants to move to Anfield and join Jürgen Klopp’s side having impressed against them when scoring home and away in the quarter-final of the Champions League this season.

 

Manchester United have shown an interest in Núñez, but they cannot offer him Champions League football. In addition, the uncertainty of playing for Erik ten Hag, embarking on a new era at the Manchester club, is less appealing that Klopp’s Liverpool.

 

Before Benfica, Núñez was at Almeria, who are due to receive 20 per cent of any profit above the £20.4 million Benfica paid for him in 2020.

 

This week could be busy for Liverpool, with Bayern Munich set to return with a third bid for Sadio Mané, which will be more in line with their £40 million valuation of the Senegal striker. The German club have so far had bids of £25 million and £30 million rejected.

 

Liverpool expect to sell the Japan forward Takumi Minamino, with Monaco leading the chase for a player who is valued at £17 million. Minamino cost Liverpool £7.5 million in January 2020 due to a clause in his contract at RB Salzburg.


Meanwhile, Liverpool have bid about £4 million for the Aberdeen right back Calvin Ramsay with a further £2 million linked to add-ons for the 18-year-old. A deal has yet to be agreed with Aberdeen, who are seeking more bonuses from the proposed transfer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, lebron said:

Struggling a bit with this one. We've obviously seen something we really like, but the numbers are pretty insane for such relatively unproven talent.

 

From the limited clips I've seen (and our 2 matches), my thoughts are;

- pretty rapid for such a big guy, good acceleration as well as great pace over longer distances

- is able to finish with both feet, and has a pretty decent strike with his right

- seems like he has very good movement in the box

- good in the air, should be able to threaten from both open play and set pieces. Could be useful with flick-ons and winning headers near the opposition goal late on in matches we're trailing, but we don't really play a lot like that...

- seems to have great stamina, even if his pressing needs to improve (in terms of defenders getting past him a bit too easily)

- not great with his back to goal. Takes too long to get the ball under control, even if he's able to physically withstand the pressure from defenders.

- his touch and technique needs improvement if he's to be effective in interplay with our other forwards.

- the keepers in the Portuguese league seem shockingly bad!

 

I think we will need to alter our playing style a bit if he's going to live up to his price-tag in terms of goal involvement. With two quick forwards either side of him (Salah, Diaz), he's not really your typical false 9 or connector between the three. There might be some issues getting him running behind from the forward position too. I'm guessing we'll see him used just as much on the left as we'll see him up top (which will drive the "proper number 9" crowd crazy).

 

He will certainly give us options. I'm just not sure it will be worth it, with the media (and some of our supporters) which will be out for blood, it could get tiresome if he doesn't hit the ground running. I didn't really want Haaland for many of the same reasons I'm a bit lukewarm on this guy. Neither really fits the way we're set up right now, and even if they get more than their share of goals, the team play will be detrimented. Hopefully I'm wrong, and he becomes a roaring success, making us a better team in the process. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I still think Firmino has a big role to play for us. I think (barring new injuries) he'll feature heavily next season and possibly beyond.

 

Diaz - Firmino - Salah

Nunez - Firmino - Salah

 

will imo both work better than

 

Diaz - Nunez - Salah

 

which will probably be what most supporters will want to see. On a side note , can see Jota getting pretty frustrated this season. 

 

Most importantly, whatever happens with this transfer, I'm fully confident Klopp will have us comptetive in both the big two competitions next season also. Very excited to see what's next, even if losing Mane is a blow (as much emotionally as in a sporting capacity).

 

 

 

I hear you, and i think a few of us have some concerns (I'm still blaming NV) 

 

But the more i think about this transfer i see why we are doing it. I went back and had a look at our results from the end of December. 14 games were decided by 1 goal or no goals. We either lost 1-0, drew 0-0 or won 1-0. I think Klopp fees like we don't score consistently enough. The games were all tight/cagey affairs and at times we were just getting over the line. That's only going to continue next year, especially from February onwards (teams are fighting for their lives) and a point against Liverpool is now a fantastic result. 

 

We can't keep throwing the same profile of attacker on the pitch with teams just sitting back and hoping Plan A works out in the end. Man, many of those games were nail biters. Maybe after 7 years Klopp is thinking it's time for a curve ball.

 

Also, Nunez is only 2cm taller than Lewandowski, so Klopp has worked with this profile of attacker before and his team still played attacking fluid football.  He will turn Nunez into what he wants and is best for the team, he's done it with many other players at Liverpool already.

 

Anyway, lets be honest, who is Nunez up against?

 

Diaz/laporte - quality, he'll have a tough game against them two

Thiago Silva - 45 years old

Harry Maguire - probably losing sleep already

Ben White - Shite

Eric Dier - fridge

Kurt Zouma - pussy

 

Nunez will absolutely beast most of those lot and the rest. He's too quick and strong for most of them. I think he'll need some refining and polishing but he'll score lots of goals for us and the results at the end of last season suggest we need more goals. I think he'll do really well for us. 

 

 

 

 

  • Upvote 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 09/06/2022 at 19:39, dockers_strike said:

Can we have a poll to see who the 18 who voted not to sign Nunez think we should sign instead, seeing as Sadio, at least, doesnt seem to want to be here for next season?

I don't know how many times I need to watch him scoring v Santa Clara to see his pedigree, but 3 or 4 viewings of his highlights aren't doing the job yet. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Darwin Nunez might be one of the most coveted strikers around now, but he didn’t always have it this easy in life. He came from a poor family and had a very challenging upbringing.

 

Nunez’s mother used to collect and sell plastic. His father was a construction worker. They were barely able to put food on the table for Nunez and his siblings.

There were times the Uruguayan striker even went hungry. Darwin even saw his mother going to sleep hungry and giving up her food to the children on occasions.

 

 

Reading all the stuff on Nunez's hard upbringing, he and Diaz are going to sound like a Four Yorkshiremen tribute act:

 

DIAZ: 'There were a hundred and fifty of us in shoebox in middle of road'.

 

NUNEZ: Luxury!

 

  • Upvote 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, YorkshireRed said:

Each to their own, beauty is in the eye of the beholder etc. but I’ve been studying photos of him all morning and I don’t agree with Klopp’s assessment; re: his handsomeness. 
 

Granted, he does have a certain boyish appeal, but he’s not Alisson levels of drop dead gorgeous. 

I’m kind of in agreement with you re Darwin.. We don’t have top tier comeliness any more now that Gini’s left the club, but I’d say Alisson, Virge, Konate, Hendo are all better looking than Darwin. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pacy, ruthless Darwin Núñez can be the next Sadio Mané

Paul Joyce

The 22-year-old comes from a city near the Brazilian border, in the north of the country; his father was a construction worker and his mother collected bottles in the street. When the Spanish second-tier club Almería showed an interest in him when he was at Peñarol, he begged the club president to grant him the move, so that he would be able to buy a house for his parents. After a decent first season in the Segunda División, in which he scored 16 goals, Suárez tried to persuade Barcelona to sign him. “I told them, ‘Pay attention to this one, he’s very good, he has very interesting [qualities],’ ” he said.

Suárez was right. Last season Núñez scored 32 goals in 38 Portuguese league and Champions League games. His domestic scoring rate of one non- penalty goal per 90 minutes was unmatched by any player in the top six European leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal). He scored with 27.2 per cent of his shots, the highest conversion rate of any player in those leagues and he had more domestic league and Champions League goals than Erling Haaland, Manchester City’s new recruit.

00cbdf985639f8b69d4da9d55678a0ac.png

Like Haaland, he is blessed with tremendous acceleration and is capable of thundering shots into the net with savage power. Despite appearances — Núñez is 6ft 2in, with a strapping physique — he is not an archetypal centre forward. He does his best work in the inside-left channel, is unafraid to embark on long dribbles and is a prolific crosser. As the former Almería assistant manager David Badia put it in Adam Bate’s excellent profile for Sky Sports: “We had another fast winger, and he was our No 9.”

At Benfica he often played as a second striker just off Roman Yaremchuk, and sometimes even on the left wing, the kind of positional versatility that you can imagine being attractive to Liverpool (particularly as Jürgen Klopp’s team liked the option of switching to 4-2-3-1 when needing more attacking threat last season, and Núñez could potentially fill that No 10 role). He is outstanding at carrying the ball into the box: last season he did so 2.2 times per 90 minutes in the Portuguese league, which is in the same ballpark as Mohamed Salah and Luis Díaz.

Benfica had a poor campaign, finishing a distant third in the table, but graduates of the Lisbon club have seemed to fare exceptionally well at elite European clubs: players such as João Félix, Raúl Jiménez, Bernardo Silva, João Cancelo and Rúben Dias are among their recent alumni, and you could argue that Primeira Liga players joining the Premier League in recent seasons have generally performed better than, say, Bundesliga arrivals.

All this bodes hugely well for Núñez, but there are also some areas of concern. His passing figures are very low: last season he attempted only 19 passes per league game and completed just 67 per cent of them. Those numbers are comparable to someone such as Danny Ings, and well below Liverpool’s forwards. Last term he recorded only four assists in those 38 Primeira Liga and Champions League games, of which two were crosses and one was a header — so only one “pass” assist. He can dribble down blind alleys and lose the ball when he should have laid it off.

Núñez scored twice against Liverpool, whom he now seems set to join, last season

Núñez scored twice against Liverpool, whom he now seems set to join, last season

CARLOS RODRIGUES/UEFA VIA GETTY IMAGES

At Almería and Benfica, Núñez was playing in teams who liked to play on the counter: a very different style from Liverpool, or indeed from the style that Erik ten Hag will seek to implement at Manchester United. “He is a tall guy but he is very quick off the mark and he can maintain that speed over long distances,” Badia said. “That was amazing for counterattacks. You could put a long ball to him and he could beat defenders even if they were two metres ahead.”

Asked by the Portuguese newspaper A Bola what sort of team Núñez would be best suited to, José Gomes, the former Almería head coach, said: “I think he would suit perfectly teams that attack depth, that play with a medium/low block.” That is almost the opposite of Liverpool, who play with a high line and squeeze the play into the final third, rarely having the luxury of attacking into space. He added that Núñez would need to “improve his first touch in interior zones under pressure” in order to fit teams of Liverpool’s profile.

At times last season, Liverpool’s first-choice front three of Salah, Sadio Mané and Díaz did not quite seem perfectly balanced, with Mané’s tendency to run in behind sometimes leaving him disconnected from the two wide forwards. Núñez does not obviously solve this problem: he is a similar centre forward to Mané in his predilection to run in behind.

Liverpool, one of the smartest clubs around from an analytical standpoint, of course know all this. Ultimately, the ability to score goals is the most precious commodity in football, and very few players possess this trait at a higher level than Núñez.

Liverpool’s pursuit of him has some interesting similarities with City’s signing of Haaland: both teams have identified a need for a player whose primary skill is finishing, having hitherto prioritised more rounded forwards who are more adept at passing and retaining the ball against low blocks. The out-and-out goalscorer has been in abeyance for a while, but if Núñez does join Haaland in the Premier League, it may just mark the dawn of a new era of strikers.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share


×
×
  • Create New...