Darwin Nunez‘s departure to Al-Hilal brings an finish to an affiliation which some inside Liverpool’s recruitment workforce noticed as a chance to start with.
The switch was facilitated by then-sporting director Julian Ward, whose connections in Portugal helped within the strategy of signing each Nunez from Benfica and Luis Diaz from Porto, but it surely was one pushed by Jurgen Klopp and Pepijn Lijnders.
Nunez had scored in each legs of a Champions League quarter-final between Liverpool and Benfica two months earlier than his swap to Merseyside – and the supervisor had seen sufficient.
Fittingly, given what was to come back, the offside flag denied Nunez a hat-trick within the second leg at Anfield – together with one beautiful first-time end on the transfer which defied his physique form – and Klopp was captivated by his relentlessness working within the left channel.
However the Uruguayan joined at a time of uncertainty for Liverpool off the pitch, with Michael Edwards getting ready for his departure and Ward starting what proved to be a short-term position overseeing transfers.
It was there {that a} club-record switch seemingly slipped via the cracks of a longtime recruitment coverage which locations nice worth within the knowledge.
‘Are we going to alter our type for him?’
The £85 million deal – of which Liverpool paid the bulk resulting from varied add-ons – was one of many final labored on by Ian Graham in his position as director of analysis.
Chatting with The Athletic final yr, Graham conceded that Nunez’s performances towards Klopp’s aspect “didn’t do him any hurt in changing into a Liverpool participant” and defined issues that have been flagged inside his workforce of analysts.
“We went via the identical knowledge course of for Nunez as with different gamers,” he recalled.
“I needed to make it possible for everybody knew what an enormous change it could be with Nunez. It was extra, ‘are we positive we’re going to make the most effective use of him?’.”
Whereas Liverpool thought-about Nunez among the many finest younger strikers in Europe as they looked for a long-term successor to Roberto Firmino, the problem was extra in whether or not he would match the setup stylistically.
“The problem with Nunez was that he was a really completely different kind of participant to Firmino,” Graham continued.
“My questions have been: ‘Are we going to alter our type or formation for him? Is he a adequate participant that it could be price making these modifications?’.
“It was one thing we had resisted for a few years.”
Changing Firmino, probably the greatest and most unusual centre-forwards in Liverpool’s historical past, was clearly going to be a troublesome job, however Klopp noticed match to shift in the direction of a extra conventional No. 9 in Nunez.
It got here throughout a revival of the out-and-out striker within the Premier League and little doubt Nunez was hampered by the comparisons with Erling Haaland – a participant Liverpool coveted however deemed out of their finances given the general spend required.
However whereas there have been clear tactical tweaks it was evident that Klopp by no means really constructed his aspect round Nunez and the onus was on him to stick to the ideas of his system.
Nunez’s xG outlier
Each Klopp after which Arne Slot expressed frustrations with Nunez’s work off the ball and most notably throughout his first season on the membership that saved him from sustaining a first-choice beginning position.
Firmino’s capacity to drop deep and hyperlink play whereas creating for his huge forwards turned so central to Liverpool’s success that it was no shock that bringing in a wholly completely different profile introduced teething points.
An out-and-out No. 9 is measured within the objectives he scores, and by way of knowledge evaluation there may be an emphasis on the underlying numbers in that regard. In different phrases, anticipated objectives.
With that in thoughts, the proof is stark: solely as soon as in his profession has Nunez outperformed his xG, and that was his last season at Benfica, when he was judged to have scored 10.5 objectives greater than he ought to have.
Put merely, the shape that satisfied Klopp – and by extension, Liverpool – to signal him is a exceptional outlier in a profession which in any other case pitches him as a striker price 10-to-15 objective a season, fairly than an £85 million positive factor.
For a time there was additionally an argument that Nunez was truly extra helpful ranging from the left flank, however he was not assured of a beginning place in that position given the supply of Diaz, Diogo Jota and later Cody Gakpo.
“I wouldn’t say that the info stated no to Nunez. It’s extra ‘if we signal this participant now we have to grasp that is the position we’ve seen him be efficient in and is there presently a slot for him in our squad?’,” was Graham’s conclusion.
“And in the event you’re spending a big sum of money on a participant then he has to begin. The worst factor you are able to do is purchase a squad participant and spend cash that could possibly be on the market on the pitch.”
That’s basically what Liverpool ended up with: Nunez began solely 76 of his 143 appearances for the membership, coming off the bench 67 occasions and taking part in the total 90 minutes on 27 events.
In his last season he discovered himself behind Diaz, a pure left winger, and Jota within the pecking order up entrance and the choice to spend £79 million on Hugo Ekitike this summer season made clear the place Nunez stood.
Liverpool’s data-led recruitment is again
With Edwards and Ward again on the membership, albeit in roles inside Fenway Sports activities Group, and Richard Hughes appointed long-term sporting director, there was a deliberate transfer again in the direction of data-led recruitment.
That comes, too, with the excellence of Slot as head coach, fairly than a standard supervisor. The hierarchy is now clear.
One of many choices pushed by Liverpool’s knowledge workforce three years in the past was Alexander Isak and it’s telling that the membership are pushing onerous for the Swede as Nunez’s alternative.
It represents the acknowledgment of a lapse of their recruitment course of.
Whereas Klopp obtained many issues proper in his transformative time at Liverpool, pushing so closely for a striker who clearly didn’t match was not one in every of them.
