There are warning signs Liverpool could be lining up another Darwin Nunez with £67m transfer mistake - opinion
03/31/2025 02:00 PM
Liverpool were not supposed to be looking for a new striker this summer.
As ever in the transfer market, the Reds had put careful thought into how they would move on from the fabled trio of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
Luis Diaz was brought in to replace Mane before he left in 2022 and initially looked like a perfect addition. With Firmino on the wane, he was the next in line to be replaced.
After plenty of options were considered and poured over, Darwin Nunez was the man selected, with an enormous transfer fee shelled out to take him from Benfica to Liverpool.
Only 22 at the time of his arrival, the Uruguayan was supposed to be Liverpool’s No.9 for much of the next decade. And yet, three years on, Nunez is set to leave the Reds after failing to convince at Anfield.
With the 25-year-old heading out the door, the Liverpool recruitment team are going back to the drawing board once again. But as they reflect on where they went wrong with Nunez, there are warning signs that they could be about to make a similar mistake again.
Liverpool should avoid Hugo Ekitike deal
Ask Liverpool supporters who they would like to be signed as their new central striker this summer and many will say Alexander Isak.
Isak is on Liverpool’s radar for sure, but with Newcastle unwilling to sell and the Swede set to cost around £150m if he pushes to leave, the Reds may have to settle for second best.
In the eyes of some, that is likely to be Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike. Reports suggest Ekitike is available for around £67m this summer and Liverpool have been named as an interested party.
There’s no doubt that the Frenchman is a good player, and at 22 he still has time to develop and improve. But Ekitike is not the finished article, not even close.
READ MORE: Arsenal look to have blinked first and handed Liverpool a big Alexander Isak advantage this summer
Liverpool paid big on potential with Nunez and were taught the lesson that there is no guarantee promise will ever be fulfilled.
As per Who Scored, Ekitike is underperforming his xG by a whopping 5.84 at Eintracht in the Bundesliga this season. With Nunez well-known for his own wastefulness in-front of goal, Liverpool should heed the warning signs that they could be targeting another work in progress.
Liverpool need instant returns up-front
Nunez has actually been consistent up against his xG in the Premier League this term, albeit having only scored five goals from chances with a 4.86 conversion rate.
Back in 2021/22, the season before he arrived at Liverpool, the then Benfica man scored 26 league goals from an xG of 18.03. That is a massive overperformance and perhaps should have been a warning to the Reds.
Underperformance the other way should perhaps not be so worrisome, as it indicates that a striker is staying true to that old adage of at least getting himself in the right position to score.
Indeed, Isak underperformed his xG by 4.16 in La Liga in 2021/22 and has since become one of the most lethal goal-scorers in Europe.
But it has taken the Newcastle man almost three years to get to this point. Liverpool cannot afford to wait that long. Nunez’s replacement must hit the ground running. If they do not, they will run the risk of going the same way as Darwin at Anfield.
Ekitike has plenty of quality and will no doubt become a top striker one day. But Liverpool must listen to the warnings from history and bring in an already proven striker who will take them to the next level straight away.
