As the end of his second season at Liverpool nears, Darwin Núñez appears to be heading towards a difficult juncture – is this the end of the road for the No. 9?
By Jack Lusby, ThisIsAnfield.com
After Liverpool’s emphatic return to form in their 4-2 victory over Tottenham, Jürgen Klopp and his players soaked in the atmosphere of the season’s penultimate home game and applauded the Anfield crowd for their support.
But one figure made a swift beeline for the tunnel, with Núñez spotted departing the field first while his many of his team-mates were still making their way around the pitch to shake hands with their opponents – to the sound of Robbie Williams, as stadium announcer George Sephton had a sly dig at Tottenham’s own anthem for manager Ange Postecoglou.
Núñez was followed by Ryan Gravenberch, Ibrahima Konate and then Dominik Szoboszlai, with the players heading to the dressing room to unpack a valuable win as they look to end the season on a high. But there appeared other things on the No. 9’s mind: later that evening, every photo of Núñez in a Liverpool shirt was mysteriously wiped from his public Instagram page.
Footballers are free to do as they please with their social media accounts, of course, but if there is going to be an indication that all is not right for a player, in this modern age it would be this.
It has been suggested that Núñez’s decision to scrub LFC from his socials is a response to the criticism he has received from so-called supporters after a frustrating end to the campaign – and that could certainly be the case – but this now reads more like an issue with the club itself.
In fact, it can be argued that the Uruguayan has been backed more heavily than any other player at Liverpool during his two seasons on Merseyside so far. His misses – of which, sadly, there have been many, with only Erling Haaland (32) wasting more big chances than Núñez (27) in this season’s Premier League – are regularly followed by his name being chanted from the stands.
He has become a cult figure among supporters, though that is not always reflected on social media. Perhaps that speaks to not only how football is consumed now, but also the society players are rooted in. James Milner, for so long the veteran of Klopp’s squad, once remarked following Liverpool’s victory over Chelsea in the 2022 FA Cup final: “You go into the dressing room after the game and all of the lads are straight on their phones. I’m saying: ‘You’ve won the FA Cup – get off your phone!’.”
A player’s perception can clearly be warped by the comments and messages they receive on social media, with another former Liverpool midfielder, Gini Wijnaldum, speaking on the subject after his exit in 2021, saying “when it went bad, I was the player who they blamed.”
“My feeling was that the fans in the stadium and the fans on social media were two different kinds. The fans in the stadium always supported me,” Wijnaldum acknowledged. “On social media, if we lost, I was the one who got the blame. There was a moment when I was like: ‘Wow. If they only knew what I was doing to stay fit and play every game’.” Perhaps that is the pit Núñez has found himself in; beloved in the stands, demonised on his phone. It is wrong to speculate but it is also impossible to ignore the damaging effects of social media for players and fans alike.
But as Klopp’s time at Liverpool draws to a close, there is a sense that this could prove a decisive summer for his No. 9, too. It was Klopp and his assistant, Pepijn Lijnders, who were the driving force behind bringing Núñez to Liverpool in 2022; such was the manager’s influence that a club-record deal worth £85 million was pushed through with Benfica to land the battering-ram centre-forward his side would be rebuilt around. It has since been reported by a number of reputable sources that Liverpool’s recruitment staff favoured Christopher Nkunku, then of RB Leipzig, with the Telegraph’s Sam Wallace claiming Klopp and Lijnders “declined” the chance to sign the French striker, who later made the switch to Chelsea.
A new structure is in place at Liverpool now, with the return of Michael Edwards as CEO of football, the appointment of Richard Hughes as sporting director and the reappointment of David Woodfine as assistant sporting director. Edwards, Hughes and Woodfine will spearhead recruitment, with Klopp’s successor, Arne Slot, acting as a head coach rather than a manager. Slot will no doubt have a say in players arriving and leaving, but his primary focus will be on coaching, rather than building the squad. Núñez, no doubt like others, will be left without his fiercest backers.
The shift in power of decision-making to those in the boardroom over those on the training field could cast a cold light on Núñez’s two seasons at Liverpool.
In 94 appearances for the club so far, he has scored 33 goals and assisted a further 17, averaging a direct goal contribution every 107.1 minutes in all competitions. But restricted to the Premier League, Núñez scored nine and assisted three in 29 games in his first season and with two fixtures remaining has 11 goals and eight assists in 34 appearances this time out. Twenty goals and 12 assists in 63 games, or one every two hours.
Eleven players have more goals and assists combined in this season’s Premier League, with Núñez the fifth-most productive centre-forward behind Ollie Watkins (31), Haaland (30), Alexander Isak (21) and Dominic Solanke (21). Ten players, including Haaland, Isak, and Watkins as well as Liverpool team-mates Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota, have a higher rate of goals and assists per 90 minutes.
Haaland – who was held up, unfairly, as a direct rival to Núñez when they both made the move to England – may be the only player to have missed more big chances, but he has also scored 14 more goals to lead the Golden Boot race. No player has been caught offside more than Núñez (32), who also averages significantly more offsides per 90 than any other player (1.43).
Núñez is 13th in the assist charts, with eight in the Premier League, but 19 other players have created more big chances than the Uruguayan, who is tied with the likes of Pascal Gross, Leon Bailey and Conor Gallagher. He also ranks towards the bottom end for passing, with an accuracy of 69.2 percent and only 14.9 completed per 90 minutes, with Núñez a striker who is often not involved in buildup play.
Weighing that data up alongside Núñez’s well-documented price tag, and those within Liverpool’s new kingmakers may decide that he is simply not offering enough to justify his status within the squad. Has a player Klopp openly admitted was a “long-term project” made enough progress to warrant his place? Long-standing interest from Chelsea, who enquired over his availability less than a year ago, along with previous links to Atlético Madrid may inform Edwards and Co further.
The future is certainly not clear for Núñez, and having potentially burned bridges at least with certain sections of the Liverpool support, it could be that he is nearing the end of the road at Anfield.
(Cover Image from IMAGO)
To keep up to date with everything Liverpool, make sure you click follow on the team profile in the FotMob app. Download the free app here.