Should Liverpool sell Darwin Núñez? Reports linking Uruguay star with Anfield exit

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Up for sale? 

©IMAGO

Liverpool may be sitting comfortable at the top of the Premier League table but the English giants may still fall victim to a turbulent January transfer window. After spending just €42 million in the summer window, the Anfield club have been linked with a number of new signings this month and, perhaps most interestingly of all, seem to be considering the sale of some big names in Arne Slot’s table-topping side. 

Rumour

D. Núñez

Centre-Forward

Liverpool		25 %		Newcastle
Premier League				Premier League

According to reports in England, Liverpool could be set to face some serious interest in forward Darwin Núñez. So far the Uruguay international has been heavily linked with a move to Newcastle, with the Premier League side reportedly looking for at least €60 million for the player they signed from Benfica for in 2022 for €85m. Such has been the speculation over Núñez’s future that former club captain Jamie Carragher recently stated that he’d be surprised if the forward was still at Anfield come the end of 2025. “I’m not sure he’s here next year, I think he’ll probably move on,” said Carragher on The Overlap show. “He’s more like a cult hero because he’s a bit mad and he likes to run around, but he’s better than [Divock] Origi.”

With 37 goals and 20 assists in 120 games since making the move to Liverpool, it would certainly be harsh to claim that Núñez has been a transfer flop in the Premier League. However, there’s no denying that he hasn’t quite lived up the hype. Perhaps unfortunately for the Uruguay talent, his €85m transfer fee made him Liverpool’s most expensive signing ever and with that brought some huge expectations that Núñez has struggled to live up to. Especially when he’s often compared to the prolific goalscoring of teammate Mohamed Salah, which is often the crux of the issue. Since making the move to Anfield, Núñez is Liverpool’s second highest source of goals and assists in the Premier League, with no less than 35 in 80 league games. The problem for the Uruguay forward is that his aforementioned Egyptian striker partner has picked up 90 goals and assists in that same period of time. So Núñez is often portrayed as the misfiring forward, even if the comparisons aren’t entirely fair. 

Indeed, when we look at Núñez’s form over the course of his career, we see a player that has more or less managed to translate his form in Portugal over to his form in England relatively well. As we can see in the table above, the forward’s average of 1.21 goals and assists per 90 in his final season at Benfica was truly remarkable but also something of a blip when compared to the rest of his career to date. When we put that season to one side, we can see that the forward’s form in his first season at Benfica (0.84 goals and assists per 90) is in fact more or less in line with his first (0.72) and second (0.92) seasons at Liverpool. As things currently stand, Núñez’s form for this season (0.50) is his worst in European football to date, but we’re still only halfway through the current campaign and that could increase in the months to come. 

In a sense, the forward has perhaps been a victim of his own hype and if he was signed by Liverpool off the back of his form in his final season at Benfica, then it certainly makes sense why the Anfield club would question his worth when he’s not only struggled to match those previous numbers but also failed to keep up with Salah’s won incredible form. However, it would perhaps be a little hasty to suggest that Slot has no place for the Uruguay forward in his squad. While the new Liverpool manager has often preferred to play Luis Díaz on the left instead of Núñez, it’s worth bearing in mind that no player has been subbed into games more often than the Uruguay forward this season. And while that underlines Núñez’s failure to nail down a starting role for Liverpool, it also points to a player that Slot values on his bench and may miss if he is indeed sold this month.