Darwin Nunez was everything this exciting, energetic, modern-day Liverpool team needed… until he wasn’t. One goal in his final 20 appearances underlines the need for an exit this summer.
If there has ever been a more lovable rogue in a Liverpool shirt, you’d be hard-pressed to name them.
There’s a player in there, no doubt, but at this point now we collectively accept that Nunez, who turns 26 this month, is not morphing into a world-beating striker who plunders 30 or more goals per season and terrifies defenders into considerations of premature retirement.
DARWIN NUNEZ, 2024/25
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, March 11, 2025: Liverpool's Darwin Núñez walks off after the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 2nd Leg match between Liverpool FC and Paris Saint-Germain FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Started: 17 (All competitions)
On as a substitute: 30
Goals: 7
Assists: 5
Overall Season Rating: 5.2
A missed opportunity
This season felt like the one. An inch-perfect audition shot for the master of chaos himself to bear the first fruits of a player entering transformation territory – leaning into a couple of seasons of banked Premier League experience and cashing in handsomely.
Nunez up until the start of the most recent campaign had simply screamed raw potential.
His physicality and dynamism combined with youthful risk-taking and appetite for the impossible was just endorphin overload for many Reds, myself very much included. It felt almost impossible that this Uruguayan maverick would not come good.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, March 8, 2025: Liverpool's Darwin Núñez celebrates after scoring his side's first equalising goal during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Southampton FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
And that’s not to say Nunez isn’t an impressive footballer, he is, but a £85 million Liverpool centre-forward who can be counted upon to lead the club to domestic and European glories he is not, and this realisation does smart in many ways.
The arrival of Arne Slot, unproven in English football and largely doubted across Europe due to perceived inexperience, should have stoked the fire in Nunez’s belly. The incoming boss needed goals and commitment to the cause, ideally both immediately.
So, as the season frittered on and Nunez amassed gradually more and more bench minutes, along with cameos of missed sitters, it was clear to see a trust issue had come into play.
Nunez is a confidence player and it’s credit to Liverpool’s No.9 that he remained battle-hardened until the very last, particularly given the levels of abuse aimed in his direction online.
But the lack of confidence as a result of not becoming a first name on the manager’s weekly team sheet cast the most impactful blow.
LONDON, ENGLAND - Sunday, March 16, 2025: Liverpool's Darwin Núñez looks dejected after the Football League Cup Final match between Liverpool FC and Newcastle United FC at Wembley Stadium. Newcastle United won 2-1. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It could be seen in the latter months of the season, as the Reds struggled to ease the goal-scoring burden placed upon Mo Salah.
With Diogo Jota injury-free for the first time in a long stretch and yet still struggling to find the back of the net, Nunez ultimately failed to step up to the plate and take his chance.
Ending the season with just one goal in your last 20 appearances simply will not cut the mustard. A profligate striker is one soon seeking another club, at this level anyway.
The talent paradox
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, December 1, 2024: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot prepares to bring on substitute Darwin Núñez during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester City FC at Anfield. Liverpool won 2-0. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It can be debated and disputed as to why Nunez’s seemingly limitless trajectory at Anfield flatlined so dramatically, but one consideration has to be that the player has ultimately discovered his ceiling.
And, now arriving at the mid-twenties age point, this theory checks out. If we remove the rose-tinted glasses and observe it plainly, Nunez is no longer a rough diamond footballer but instead a centre forward with considerable Premier League experience and leads the line for his country.
That his returns aren’t greater for Liverpool at this stage in his career suggests the level around him has exceeded his own abilities.
You and I, the mere mortals, will never know what it feels like to join an elite level of footballers and feel as though you can grow into and thrive within the surroundings.
For Nunez, this juncture seems to have passed. The shadow cast by Salah is a long one and spending your time in it cannot be easy.
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, ENGLAND - Sunday, August 27, 2023: Liverpool's Darwin Núñez (L) celebrates with team-mate Mohamed Salah after scoring the winning second goal during the FA Premier League match between Newcastle United FC and Liverpool FC at St James' Park. Liverpool won 2-1. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
As much as Nunez has worked hard to enhance the opportunities of the Egyptian King (a new record was set between the pair back in late 2023) he has now fallen victim to a talent paradox, in that alongside Salah and arguably Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo, Nunez has observed a level of operating that isn’t within his capabilities.
The broad-shouldered, imposing unit of a striker which visited Anfield with Benfica back in April 2022 was not the same Nunez we see now. That player was a solo spearhead of a team which relied upon his level to raise them up.
Those of us in attendance at that fixture saw an assassin of a striker, raw yet desperate to provoke havoc and find the back of the net, which he did along with a world-class chip over Alisson being disallowed for offside – a familiar theme, even then.
Nunez flourished that evening in a team destined to be the underdog. He wore the champion of the people cloak proudly and understandably made a lot of Benfica fans happy when banking such a huge fee for the club.
But at Anfield, though he is held in dear regard by the Kop, the perennial have-a-go-hero role doesn’t exactly exist, not when it comes to the first-choice marksman.
A fond farewell
Darwin Nunez signs for Liverpool FC at AXA Training Centre on June 14, 2022 in Kirkby, England. (Photo by Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
It feels like the departure of Nunez will likely arrive towards the end of the transfer window, as Liverpool court interest and drive hard negotiations to recoup as much of the original outlay as possible.
When that day does arrive, it will be an emotional parting of ways for a striker who will be well received on any future potential Anfield returns.
A sale is all but a given, purely due to how Liverpool operate. Bold and highly expensive plans are already in motion this summer and a balancing of the books act is always how things chime inside FSG towers.
As of last month, the CIES football observatory included Nunez in their list of the top 100 most valuable footballers in the global game, estimating a current market value holding steady around the £50m-£60m region.
It comes as little surprise then that the Reds appear to be favourably drumming up Saudi Arabian interest, in order to keep this estimation in a healthy state of further inflation.
2S731DM London, UK. 18th Jan, 2025. Brentford v Liverpool - Premier League - Gtech Community Stadium. Darwin Nunez celebrates scoring his second goal. Picture Credit: Mark Pain/Alamy Live News
It would be remiss to suggest Nunez would leave Anfield feeling content and satisfied with his overall body of personal contributions, though some moments do shine through as golden.
The Brentford brace, a heady atmosphere of nerves and tension shattered in the space of minutes. The sequencing with Salah away at Arsenal to earn a vital point, the cut inside and sumptuous, curling finish at home against Bournemouth; like something straight out of a Fernando Torres playbook.
It’s been a disappointing season for Nunez, and not the way many of us envisaged his Liverpool career would end, but time waits for no man in football and sentiment has minor sway in proceedings.
Still, Nunez will leave as a Premier League champion, medal slung around the neck and with a burning point to prove. Wherever he goes next, Liverpool’s major what-could-have-been player will be strongly rooted for.
Best moment: Grabbing the match by the scruff of the neck and Brentford and winning a seemingly doomed game on his own.
Worst moment: A glaring, open goal miss against Aston Villa back in February as the Reds dropped points and a fleeting sign of nerves crept in.
Role next season: Almost certain to depart into the sunset but will have hopefully banked a tidy return fee for the Reds.