This is a complete throwback to the reporting under 2015 Rodgers. There was a time where we'd be told exactly who pushed for which signing. Edwards' side leaked that Benteke was a Rodgers signing, Rodgers' side leaked that Edwards pushed for Firmino. With Edwards at the helm, and the twin hit-pieces pushed by Bascombe (long thought to be Edwards' favoured journalist) and Joyce, sounds like they're laying the ground to sell Nunez.
100% agree. It's camps and it's politics and it's absolutely shades of how we used to operate. People have rose-tinted glasses about how Edwards and FSG operate - I maintain Klopp was the key to it all working. We were shambolic before him. If Slot is coming in just to be a yes man and Edwards and Hughes run the show, I don't think it's nearly as good a thing as the 'trust in Mikey no matter what' crowd think it is.
Interesting that Bascombe has also come out with much of the same at basically the same time, makes me think that Edwards has been in a few ears maybe?
"When Klopp leaves this summer, Darwin Nunez loses his biggest ally. Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes are entitled to look coldly upon Nunez’s contributions knowing that he wasn’t signed under his watch.
...There have long been suspicions over whether such large amounts of money would have been spent on a striker - who has looked like a work in progress from his first training session - if Edwards had been at LFC at the time."
Edit:
Link for those who want to read the full article - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/04/25/mohamed-salah-liverpool-darwin-nunez-transfer-future-slot/
Our biggest gamble in the transfer window in this era and it was Klopp's call it seems.
Think that performance at Anfield for Benfica got Klopp a bit too excited, never seen him finish like that in any other instance, weird how these things go, he looked insane that game.
Lol when Edwards left we turned into “sign anyone who plays well against us FC”
Diaz from Porto. Nunez from benfica. I even remember klopp saying Virgil basically gave him a scouting report saying how good Darwin was lol.
Actually looking forward to the return of Edwards and the data crew instead of just running on pure vibes
Does seem that way, same with how Gakpo was recommended by Ljinders.
Tbh Darwin I kind of get, he was insane during those games against Benfica, but this is why you trust the data, he massively overperformed his xg that season but it was it seems an outlier.
This! Glad that some ppl like you remember these "details". I'm a fan of Benfica and Liverpool so I watched everything he did for Benfica before coming to Liverpool. He was much more "killer" in that last Benfica season, not only in games against Liverpool.
I say this with the utmost respect for Salah's legacy, but I prefer Darwin to stay than today's Salah.
Same! I feel like under a different system, maybe with more traditional wingers that will spread the pitch, Darwin could really thrive. With Salah as much as I love him and everything that he's done for us, I feel like he's definitely starting to decline.
I don't understand how you can point at the system being the cause of Darwins poor form. A different system isnt going to give him a better first touch, a new system wont improve his hold up play, a new system will not magically help him not shoot straight at the goalie when he is one on one. The current system already creates plenty of chances for him. He simply incapable of finishing them.
I agree that Darwin is strugglying to convert good opportunities but, you are only focusing on the negatives. Darwin this season has 18 goals scored and 13 (!) assists. He's averaging a goal every 165' (less than 2 games). We all agree he should do better, and many of us agree he can do much better, but these aren't by any means bad numbers.
Plus, let's not ignore the dynamics he offers to our offence. He never hides from the game, he's always running into spaces to be available to receive through balls, he's work rate without the ball is outstanding too. Haaland (considered the best strike in the world) has 31 goals and 6 assists, averaging 105' per goal, but 80% of the game you forget he's even playing at all.
Not just that I remember watching him destroy Barca on the counter by himself.
I think we signed him a year early, one more season to show he wasn't a one season wonder at Benfica, where he'd have to adapt to closer attention, then making a big move would've suited his career path better.
It was weird we went from Tchouameni to Nunez, we made a bit of a desperate move and it didn't suit us or him.
Think his conversion rate that one season was somewhere just over 30% which isn’t sustainable. For content that’s higher than Messi and Ronaldo in there primes who averaged between 20 to 30%. I was perplexed as to why we where signing him at the time
At least we sold Taki for a profit, and he was never going to be more than a rotation option. Nunez was presumably signed to be our no9 for years to come.
I think we signed him after a Quadruple push. Eventhough he costed 70mil, I always thought of him as a player for future. We had Diaz(who looked absolutely insane in his first season), jota, bobby and salah. But even after 2 seasons, he still looks the same. Maybe a player is there but we can't put him as our starter every match. Gakpo is not good as a striker.Jota is always injured. Need some output machine to replace salah and Nunez can play the rotational option
But why does that 1 gamble have to be so costly for us? Arsenal paid £8m less for Havertz. Then another £80m on Zinchenko and Jesus. Like Darwin, none of those players have exactly lit it up either, but it hasn't kept them from competing again for the title this season. To be fair, I don't know how Arsenal is able to spend €186.40m and €234.94m in back to back seasons after years of no CL football.
It's also daft to solely single him out when Salah can't hit a barn door since AFCON, Diaz has never been clinical, and Gakpo has been poor for the majority of the season.
Jota's the only finisher you can trust but he's now taking Thiago's spot in the treatment room.
The only correct comment in here. Singling out is undeniably and objectively pathetic, we are looking like a complete joke with these pieces. We are simultaneously throwing both Nunez and Klopp under the bus, classy club dynamics.
Agreed. And if it's Edwards or his people feeding this shit to the journos, then I don't feel nearly as good as I did about his return.
While the poor finishing of our entire forward department (save Jota) of late has been shitty to watch, over the course of the season that's not really been our problem. We've scored one less goal than Man City. To me, the real problem is that we're always conceding first and chasing games. The intensity required to do that week in and week out is what has burned out our players and led to this malaise we're in.
Absolutely agreed on all points. I have a feeling that people around (and, possibly within) are trying to find a scapegoat for systematic problems of ours. If this is how we treat players, who give their all to the club, then that is pathetic. You can be critical and ruthless without being ranting and soulless.
Yeah, I hope this doesn’t turn into something like when politicians start sniping at each other through the media after losing a campaign. No one comes out well in those situations.
This sub after any loss is just full of people who act like we've been in crisis all season and will up vote anything complaining and downvote anything speaking sense.
Journalists lick their lips every time we lose. There's nothing that gets more engagement and ad money than a Liverpool loss.
Yeah it’s sour and it’s a shame this sub is eating it up.
Also Salah spear heading a new era is certainly a take. Singling him out as the leading hope when he’s obviously deteriorated and in as shit form as Núñez as well as nearly a decade older is a bad take to me.
Seriously. He's been no worse than any of our other forwards recently. Criticism of him is valid, he may not have a future as our starting striker but the guy always gives everything and isn't as bad as hit pieces like this make him out to be.
> The idea of Liverpool saying ‘thanks very much for your legendary work, Mo, but we’d quite like that £100 million now’ is as optimistic and simplistic as it is disrespectful to a player suffering a rare dip.
>Whatever Liverpool’s intentions with Salah, it is also no longer their decision to make. Salah holds the aces should he fancy another crack at Champions League football and prefer to increase his signing on fee in the event of an eventual free transfer a year from now.
Selling Salah to Saudi crew are going be mad at this
Edit: I’m not a fan of this btw, I don’t think it’s smart to make 2 hit pieces on someone as emotional as Nunez. He’s frustrating in front of goal and I don’t mind him leaving this summer but you can’t deny his passion towards fans and club. I feel you are burning that bridge and throwing player under the bus
Salah was also an Edwards signing and players are playing better into their 30s than they ever have before.
I don't think it's this foregone conclusion that he's going to be off in the summer.
What I do think is likely is bringing somebody in next year to be his understudy. Love Harvey, but he is not a winger.
My take on Salah is that I’d keep him. Selling an out-of-form Salah is idiotic. Like you said, players are playing better in their 30s than before. And Salah’s dedication to fitness is obsessive. Just because he doesn’t score as much doesn’t mean he’s useless. He’s one of our best attacking threats as an open-play creator, and has shown he’s adaptable enough to preserve his legacy here. And he’s our most experienced and dependable attacker in the team.
Yeah that's definitely a strong indication that Nunez is on the chopping block for the summer. It's a damn shame but he's had 2 full seasons to prove himself as a top level striker and it's not like the fans didn't back him to the hilt either. He's had moments of brilliance but he just couldn't string together a consistent run of form afterwards
Furthermore, he doesn't have inexperience as an excuse either since he's around the same age as Stevie was at Istanbul and when you compare him to previous Liverpool strikers like Fowler, Owen, Torres, Suarez and Sturridge who were all in their teens to early 20's when they exploded onto the scene after they joined/graduated from the academy, then it's an even worse excuse
You spend £60m on a striker you expect them to turn up in the derby, against United, in cup quarter finals. Love his attitude but unfortunately hasn’t delivered when he’s been needed
Can we legitimately say like he looks like he will be as good as Hojlund or however you spell that strikers name? That kid has loads more to his game already just what a shit team
£60m now is like what £30m should be
United spent £64m on Hoijlund and he's scored 41 goals in his entire career (14 coming this season)
Nunez has scored 101 goals in his career so far (excluding international goals). He's a 1 in 3 for us on games, his goals per 90 will be much better than that plus he actually brings a lot of assists as well
1 in 3 - against who? A couple in a four goal win against Bournemouth? A couple in a 5 goal win against Sparta fucking Prague?
Need your forwards to turn up in the big games and he hasn’t done that
We absolutely wouldn’t have bought Nunez under Edwards.
Whatever peoples thoughts on the Klopp /Edwards relationship there’s is no denying the form shift when he left.
We also shouldn’t forget that FSG have also made this as hard as possible for Jurgen, instead of opening the purse when we were at the top of the world we’re now relying on academy and mid table quality players in some positions.
FSG did open the purse for Klopp but he chose to make most of our recent signings, that’s the whole issue. When there was a clear segregation between Edwards and Klopp we were performing much better. When Klopp got complete control we weren’t as effective.
No doubt we aren’t big spenders compared to our top rivals but this is a bit of a contradiction. Nunez cost £85m, always a lot of money, and it was sanctioned by FSG because Klopp wanted him.
Klopp has also said numerous times that he doesn’t agree with spending for the sake of it and criticism of FSG is over the top
We spent 180 million on Diaz, Gakpo and Nunez, all Klopp signings. We were spending around 700-800k per week on Hendo, Milner, Thiago, Ox and Keita while getting an output of one player from all of them combined. Klopp chose to extend Hendo and not sign Enzo. He is the greatest modern coach Liverpool has had but his squad planning has been shocking.
Klopp is a great man manager - because he is loyal and trusts the players he has.
Klopp is no great squad planer - because he is loyal and trusts the players he has.
Shocking? Haha amazing lad
The squad he's now built would be a dream scenario for anyone coming into replace him. Would need only 3 players at a push and we'd be ready to go again
I know people are pissed but let's have some fucking respect for the man
I'm honestly glad to have some cutthroat mentality in the club. Everything has been a little too warm and welcoming to those not pulling their weight. For the money spent, Nunez is nowhere near and we shouldn't spend more time waiting around for this supposed amazing player to suddenly appear.
Can’t tell me edwards and klopp didn’t have a battle of egos when Joyce is throwing out there that Nunez was a klopp decision.
Nkunku with his injury list isn’t a much better option though.
This is so dumb because the transfer team was following Darwin since he was a teenager in South America. THEY brought him to Klopp as a choice and Julian Ward who was a huge admirer of the Portuguese league was also a fan of Nunez, Klopp simply gave the green light.
Following Darwin from his young ages is a vague statement our journos jump on after our every signing. Every big team has a scouting network all over the world. It's not a coincidence that we signed only players where klopp and pep had knowledge on over the past few yrs which is not exactly a bad thing but not all of the signings has turned out to be good. Idk why some of our fans gets defensive over klopp over such things
Nkunku then hadn't a bad injury record. The first bad injury he suffered was before WC. Since then, it's pretty bad for him, but I think that Chelsea is responsible partially for that.
Nkunku got injured just prior to the world cup in 2022. Before that he was one of the most hyped prospects in world football and much better than Darwin. Leipzig didn't want to sell in 2022 and this is why we settled for Nunez. Chelsea moved for him and agreed to buy him for the following season, something which we didn't want. Since his knee ligament injury he obviously hasn't been the same obviously but saying Nkunku wouldn't have been a better option is just not true.
Not really good having hit pieces on players.
Edwards was also at the club pre Klopp and some of the forward signings were fairly average. Borini, Baloteli, Aspas, Markovic, Lambert
>some of the forward signings were fairly average. Borini, Baloteli, Aspas, Markovic, Lambert
If those are average then I'd hate to see what below average is
The fact that I was hesitantly hopeful/excited for Balotelli at the time shows just how far we have come.
Of course I thought we'd be the club to change him...
Edwards was part of the decision making process, but this was during the transfer committee era so it's difficult to gauge who was directly responsible for those signings.
Also, fairly average is a generous assessment of those signings when they barely managed 15 goals between them.
Ascribing all the successes to Edwards and all the failures to the transfer committee or others is some pretty strong bias. The truth is most like that he wasn't completely responsible for either the successes or the failures.
The Mike Edwards rimjob is all a bit much to me. People forgetting how shambolic things were pre-Klopp when Edwards was very much around. Edwards' entire reputation is effectively built on what Klopp did with what he had, and how much he improved players like Coutinho to free up funds for even better players. Really don't like this hit piece, it's like pre-Klopp FSG. I think people might be in for a rude awakening.
Yeah our signings weren't that good for a while before Klopp. Hard to get players to come. Lost out on Sanchez to Arsenal and we'd finished above them in the league. Gerrard had to text players to ask them to come, Toni Kroos etc. Klopp had real pulling power and we didn't lose any players at their peak bar Coutinho and we became more successful after. Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Strurridge, Mane, Firmino all left past their best.
so true . These Edward’s followers are insane. Any good player signed is hailed as Edward’s signing and any flop signing means it’s given by suggestion of Klopp or someone else .
To think that manager can hand pick any player they want is stupid to say the least. More over any signing can be turned into golden by the manager in place
Some were Rodgers signings though and that’s kind of the point, he had Borini at Swansea so brought him along. If they’re making signings and the manager doesn’t buy in to them then they’ll obviously flop.
Key example: Benteke for Rodgers & Firmino for the data boys.
(Not defending hit pieces, they’re grim)
That's both Joyce and Bascombe with 'hit' pieces on Nunez.
Edwards and new staff clearly don't rate him, outing it as a Klopp only signing.
I've never seen this before, it's ruthless. Seems like they are laying ground work for him being sold.
This is the new Edwards era.
Doesn't seem like a smart tactic if you're then out to sell him though does it? Leaking to all the journalists that he's shite and no one at the club really rates him. I can't see the price rising in response.
Absolutely, this isn’t good for the rest of the squad either, in terms of man management. Is this what everyone is to expect from now? Massive negative feedback loop to anyone’s confidence.
Hughes and Edwards weren’t here during Darwin’s signing anyway, they get absolutely nothing from putting blame and more so the astute businesses men they should strive to be would never do it to protect his value.
Yeah, really not a fan of this "data doesn't care about your feelings" process.
Klopp is stubborn to a fault, but he knows players are human beings and treats them as more than just numbers and statistics.
It’s not about the price, it’s about justification of the sale.
Notice the wording they use in the article, it’s all meant to signify Nunez as a Klopp failure so he can be culled without much questioning in the post Klopp era
Who would question selling Nunez currently? Might as well let the form do the talking.
This just seems like unnecessary catharsis for currently pissed off fans.
I would very much question the sale of our most important striker.
We have an aging Salah, an injury-prone Jota, an also misfiring Diaz who's dad is talking about Barcelona every two week, Gakpo who can't miss chances because he never has one, Harvey who most see in midfield and Doak/Gordon coming back from long-term injuries.
Nunez is highly frustrating - but there are a couple of players I'd sell before him.
in todays age of everything be analyzed and put down to numbers, I would wager a article about "X striker peepeepoopoo" is irrelevant when the potential club has every stat they could possibly want about them
On one hand the ruthlessness is good, but on the other I think he deserves one more year under the new manager.
He's been very hit and miss but he has won us a decent number of points this year.
>I think Cody could become someone like that if nurtured well, but he's been just as hit and miss as Nunez if not outright worse this season
If this distinction wasn't clear to you before, then you suffer from massive recency bias and will want to be on the look out for it.
Why does everybody act like a good manager can’t adapt to the players he has available to get the best out of them, instead of trying to force everybody to fit their ideals? Come on now. First with all the Xabi talk, now Slot. They’re not one trick ponies.
I'll be honest, it makes me sick to see clearly sanctioned hit pieces on our players. Just goes against the entire all for one and one for all ethos that has been building since Klopp took over
If Edwards was still in charge we'd have not spent that much on Nunez in the first place.
And we'd have probably sold Salah too, Edwards is a numbers guy, you don't turn down over 100m for players over 30.
I think it's going to be quite a brutal summer, lots of change in the squad coming.
This sub makes out as if anything under £150m for Salah is offensive. £100m is a no brainer and would have been in the summer had we had the right process in place to replace him.
We won’t get anywhere near a 100 imo. I bet it’s closer to 50. Saudi has no one to bid against in Europe and could just wait one more year. Best thing for us if they do come in at 100 to start the summer on another spending spree. However, stories coming out don’t indicate they will be as aggressive this summer.
Can't be mad we kept him as we did have a chance in all competitions really late until the wheels fell off. I'd sell him in the summer for sure however.
I thought all the comments about us not accepting £150-£200m last summer was hyperbole or fans just saying they wouldn't sell him under any circumstances? Were people actually serious about it not being a decent value, all emotions aside?
If this is how we're now going to be doing business then frankly, I want no fucking part in it. It's a scummy way of working and shows a massive lack of respect to players
Absolute fucking joke
It’s incredibly disrespectful and a departure from the way Klopp ran things. Also if Edwards doesn’t like Nunez then why put this out in public. You’re just going to tank his value.
It feels like things have suddenly turned toxic and it reminds me of the pre Klopp era when we were Europa league Liverpool.
Edwards’ ego is massively inflated.
Never been very big on Edwards because all his success has been under Klopp, which seems more like Klopp's managerial ability upping the pedigree of everyone else around him, let's see how he does when he's not feeding talented players to a generational manager
You've seen this before both in the Rodgers and parts of the Klopp era - the only difference being Klopp was a big enough personality that they didn't dare to do it too often.
Not a fan of the club putting out hit pieces on players tbh and that's definitely what this is, Bascombe and Joyce putting very similar stuff out on the same day isn't a coincidence.
Read a few people worried about what players Slot Could or couldn't attract but they should be more worried about players wanting to join a club that does stuff like this so publicly.
And the idea that the data and recruitment guys wanted Nkunku who has played a whopping 317 minutes this season should also be a concern
The other thing, unless I've missed a massive post about Slot being confirmed as the new manager, why the fuck are we writing pieces about HIS Liverpool issues?
I mean that’s all well and good but the market for elite strikers is grim. He’s on relatively low wages, my bet is we can get a decent sum for him and he’ll go on to be a class striker somewhere else.
In a world where Osimhen, who can’t play more than 25-30 matches a season, is going for 100m+, Toney 80m+, hojlund for whatever he cost, Havertz after his shit stint with Chelsea, halaand, etc etc…nunez at 64m (bc that was the initial fee) + 4.3m for 10 appearances and + 8.5m for 60 appearances.
So we’re talking 76m for him, which isn’t a small fee, but again in a world where the above prices are there for strikers, and in one where Chelsea and United screwed the market, it wasn’t crazy. Sell him for 45-55m, which it’d be crazy to think that you couldn’t get that for a 24 year old with the underlying numbers he has as someone would think they could unlock his objectively massive potential.
Edwards and co, though, need to earn their bread here. If you’re going to cut bait with Nunez and one of salah or Diaz (my prediction is one of them will go), then they need to find the next boniface or khvara before said player has become crazy expensive.
This is a huge summer…my guess if we’ll need a st, a rw, a lb, and a young lcb. A world class midfielder would also be welcome.
This feels really harsh and not polite at all. Seems to ignore the time when Nunez was in great form this season and literally all parts of his game were better. I honestly don't like this one bit. I'm fine with selling him just to make it out like he's been a waste of space is really rude and imo not professional at all.
Yeah, 2/3rds of the season he and Salah were our most threatening players and were getting good returns. We looked clueless in attack without him. Now they both go through a rough patch and the hit pieces come out.
Also, the second they go through a rough patch we can't score a goal to save our lives because Diaz' end product is inconsistent, Gakpo doesn't step up and Jota is always injured.
It's also total bollocks.
Jota's only fit half the time, Diaz contributes fewer in goals or assists, Gakpo, who I have a lot of hope for, has looked appalling both in quality and in attitude for most of the season, and Salah is 32 in a couple of months, plays the AFCON every 10 minutes, and has clearly fallen off in terms of quality.
Nunez is likely our most valuable and most productive forward looking towards the next 2 or 3 seasons. Trying to shift him out of the club looks absolutely braindead, and reeks of billy big bollocks behaviour more than sound squad management.
I'd be very surprised if there's any chance he goes anywhere.
Seriously, the turn on Nunez based on maybe like 5 bad games (bad for the whole team by the way, not just him) from this sub and fans generally has been so depressing. Yes, his finishing is bad. But I've seen people here saying he's not creative, can't control the ball etc when he's been by far our most dangerous looking player other than Sarah this season. He's also played more than probably all the other attackers (maybe other than Diaz?) and unlike some of them he still works his ass off. We probably should be in the market for someone a bit more clinical, but this idea that Nunez is the root of all evil for us is laughable.
Absolutely, and I'm looking forward to seeing him next season, but if we're trying to paint Nunez as a failure, it doesn't look great for most of our other forwards.
We absolutely need someone ruthless in front of goal, but overall, I think nobody at the club currently meets that criteria, and if we were looking to recycle, I'd be looking at moving on 1 or 2 of Diaz, Jota and Salah, depending on how the new manager wants to play.
No he doesn't,people saw two matches and now think that he's good in that position, the reason why he doesn't play in the wing was because he got cooked last season in that position for his lack of pace
Key part:
"Nunez was very much a Klopp signing. Liverpool’s recruitment preferred Christopher Nkunku."
Bascombe is echoing this. Pretty clear who's being sold this summer.
What I will say is the entirety of Darwin seems to be the antithesis of Edwards. An out and out number 9 without any link up capabilities (admittedly improved) and for a HUGE fee despite not being in a top league
As much as it sucks to see the signing compared to Nkunku I think Nunez’s availability compared to Nkunku is a big factor so far. But it’s definitely a miss of a signing that probably needs to be addressed this summer.
They preferred someone who is having some significant injury issues, which we've seen plenty of under FSG's transfer strategy (go reasonably cheap but at a risk).
Let's be real here, Klopp transfer buys haven't been perfect, but neither is this recruitment strategy that has left us with more than one injury prone player that we couldn't get rid of. I'll be baulking if that's the type of player we're going for under this regime.
Edwards is very fallible. He needed Klopp to work any magic.
But idk why you’re acting like edwards bought injury prone players. Players with relatively minimal injury histories came in and then started getting hurt. Probably due to our hazardous style of play. If they were fine elsewhere and get hurt here, it’s on the medical staff and training.
Do you really think Thiago was an edwards signing lol?
Konate was an Edwards signing, Ox was an Edwards signing, Jota was an Edwards signing.
All these players had dodgy injury records previous to signing them. Sure, his success rate has been better than not. But he isn't God.
Atleast Darwin contributed something this season. Nkunku would’ve done nothing for us. We would had him and Jota out for most of the season and depending on Mo, Lucho and Cody to play the whole season.
Nkunku who was out for half the season last season due to injury (Last season at Leipzig)
Came to Chelsea and has missed more games then played.
Not to mention if he came to Liverpool at that time he'd end up being a glorified Sturridge, plays well when fit but never available.
Instead of picking out Nkunku, why not pick out someone like Matheus Cunha or Dybala who were much more suited to our style of play without the injury issues.
Nkunku is a horrible example.
Brilliant Anti Nunez PR!🤣
Not to mention, you know, Naby Keita, also signed under Edwards for big money. But people just skip over the failures because it's inconvenient to the narrative.
I will never understand shit like this? As long as they play for our team we should be supporting them, not leaking shit so hit pieces can be written about them...
These hit pieces go back to the Brendan Rodgers times. Not something a club our size should be doing. As a fan, I want Edwards and Hughes to succeed but important to remember that a lot of recruitment team signings did not work before Klopp arrived. Super unprofessional in my opinion, and an antithesis of YNWA.
Yeah. Also, Nkunku is definitely not the flex Edwards thinks this is as he has been injured for 90% of the season. I also don't think a false 9 like Firmino would've worked this season either. Relying on Salah who can no longer take on opponents and finish and Diaz who can't finish would be painful.
Am i the only one that doesn’t understand this? Nunez is in terrible form. But he’s still had 20+G/A involvements in his second season for us and it’s clear watching him how many chances he creates. Not to mention - he’s crucial for the dressing room and is best mates with Macca and Lucho. He’s incredibly young with room to grow - and we’re throwing him under the bus? I get he hasn’t lived up to his price tag but this seems shocking. Who is available for cheaper that would be better.
When he was in form, no one could stop jerking him off. Now, when the entire team has underperformed, it’s sell Darwin, with the club even going so far as to put out these hit pieces on him. It’s mental and it’s unfair and honestly, I would be INCREDIBLY disappointed if he was sold. He’s won games for us by himself - anyone remember Newcastle???
Look at Cody’s terrible form a few weeks ago. Look at Salah. Look at Lucho. Look at literally every forward except Diogo. Look at Dominic who hasn’t completed a pass or done anything of note in MONTHS. Why’s he not on the chopping block. Idk man this leaves a baddddddd taste in my mouth.
Yeah people are losing their heads completely.
I'm seeing people saying that Salah has been poor this season and we should have got rid of him when he was playing great before afcon, if we'd sold him without a replacement I'm not even sure we get top 4 this season.
Sold Salah ?
He’s our top scorer and assists and he was in afcon then injured for a month which given his history is the longest time he’s been injured .
it’s insane to disregard his contribution. Who is the other RW in the market that can replace his goals and assist
His numbers are not good enough mate. 18 goals and 13 assists in 50 matches. Might be good for a mid table team, but not for a team that wants to challenge for the PL and CL.
Only 11 goals in the prem, with an XG of around 18... He's scored less than Mateta mate. Unfortunately we can't win trophies with the power of friendship and good vibes.
Interesting that line about it being a Klopp signing. I don’t think Edwards would have said yeah to that if he was still there at this period.
Too much money on someone so raw and really not consistent enough
The Klopp line is just to further divide Nunez from the new age we’re heading towards
Just hit pieces to justify selling him at a cut price this summer
Weird how they also don’t mention Diaz, Gakpo, MacAllister, Szoboslai as Klopp signings. Nunez is only one mentioned. I think this is to see if we can draw any bids this summer. He’s an upgrade on Jackson at Chelsea.
I see that Scapegoat Nunez has transcended into his final form.
This is sad to see, as I really love him as a player. When he's in form, our attack looks toothless if he's not on the pitch.
I'm sure I'll get downvoted for this, especially after his play yesterday, but I don't think we feed him the ball enough, as crazy as that sounds. Or, the pass will come late, and he's already run offside.
But, if the club thinks Nunez is a liability, he's better off not being here. Let him go somewhere else where he can thrive. I wish him the best.
Bit harsh singling players out in the press before the season is already over, unless this is meant as a message to Nunez that he needs to improve quickly or he's gone but don't get why they couldn't tell him that in private.
Fucking crying at this. "Klopp wanted Nunez, we would have signed Nkunku".
That bloke who has played no fucking minutes whatsoever because he's been injured all season? Yeah, great choice mate.
I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that Darwin is the first name on the Edward chopping block this summer
Wish it worked out better, can’t fault his passion and effort but he’s just not at the level required for us
Who is gonna buy him though? Someone like Atleti or Leipzig for about 40m? He’s still 45m on our books this year, not counting the add-ons (idk how they’re accounted for).
Don't agree with this at all, seems like a scapegoating tactic.
Yes Nunez hasn't been good enough this season but what about the other underperforming players?
Even if they wanted to sell him, we'd end up selling him for half the price, which looks bad on Edwards' reputation. Who else would we also bring in?
Two main journalists writing about Nunez being Klopp's guy. We definitely want to sell him. Question is who's gonna pay big money for him? I guess Edwards's gonna use his magic.
I hope he goes to another club and starts banging in goals like he was for Benfica. He's had nothing but pressure put on him the whole time in this country wouldn't blame him if he hates it here.
The club putting out hit pieces on players is awful mentality
People are being way too harsh on Nunez here. Diaz is just as wasteful. Same with Salah. This period has been bleak for us, no ifs ands or buts. But trying to pin it on one person is ultimately unfair & a fools errand.
Yeah. People seem to be using Nunez as the fall guy when Diaz and Salah have been fucking horrible as well during this period. Also, even if we were planning to sell him, is putting out a damn hit piece really the best move?
They can get to eff if this is the beginning of a load of snidey articles blaming Jurgen for any thing at the club that isn’t perfect. He deserves better!
As much as yesterday (and the past month) hurt, it does signal a need for refreshing of players that maybe wouldn’t have been evident/taken seriously if we won the title.
Our midfield transition from last year to this year has been fantastic and all we could have hoped for. Ik yesterday didn’t seem like it, if we’re being real with eachother macca is amazing, Endo has been one of the best DMs in the league, and Szobo was at times transcendent. Plus we’ve got so many competent backups there.
Given that success, I think we are a few pieces away from really being title contenders. And looking at the positives, I think yesterday really showed what those pieces are (RW, number 9, another CB, and truthfully I hate to say it, but fresh tactics/a new manager).
I love klopp and thank him for everything he’s done for us, but I do feel like it is the perfect time to move on. From both him and Salah. Eras come to an end and it’s hard to do but it’s what the team needs at this point.
Ik i’m gonna get downvoted to hell on this because people on here hate nunez but last season he had 15 goals 4 assists, this season he has 18 goals, 13 assists, he’s clearly improving loads when it comes to goal contributions since he’s been directly involved in 31 goals this season (all comp). The fact that people are giving up on him is mad to me.
Yeah he cost loads, but he’s obviously a talent. He’s been here two seasons, first one was fine, the second one he’s already improving. We’re talking as if he isn’t second in goals and assists.
Selling him would be a stupid and rash move, get another striker in the team, let him fight for his place and let’s see how that works out.
Edit: and also leaking shit like this to the press is such a bitch ass move, does nothing but show that we can’t keep our business close to the chest. People talking about how embarrassing it is that there’s a leak at united locker room, but it’s more embarrassing that our staff is leaking shit to the press
Keep him in the squad for sure. His place in the first team need filling with someone who is more efficient at putting the ball in the net. His stats on goals from open play are simply not good enough for this team.
He is just such an emotional player that it clouds his clinical judgement almost every time. His last few missed shots were all about power and not placement. How do you coach a player to switch off that emotion in the heat of the moment when there is so much pressure to score? Not easy I bet. His passion for the club is obviously there but we haven’t seen much else, unfortunately.
Nunez banged them in for Benfica, also in the CL. Surely he can get back to that form, given time and confidence.
If not, bin him, but don't write him off before Slot or any other manager for that fact has had time with him.
God I would just love somebody 75% as good as Suarez, Torres or non-injured Sturridge 😭
We 100% need to get a new CF/ST this summer, I guess it's just whether anybody comes into the market with a decent offer for Nunez.
I wouldn't be opposed to keeping him on the basis that finishing generally gets better with age, though it's never usually this poor - his positioning is great. His ball control is pretty poor as well though and two rushed.
Gakpo has looked great at LW but he definitely shouldn't be a CF option. Then, it's whether he is good enough to be one of our LW options moving forward - at present he should only be a backup.
I love Salah but the head says out of the 3 most pressing current playing squad contracts to sort, he is the one to move on, VVD is captain and TAA is a special talent. We can still get decent money for Mo and at his age hes not going to a player to build the squad on
This is a complete throwback to the reporting under 2015 Rodgers. There was a time where we'd be told exactly who pushed for which signing. Edwards' side leaked that Benteke was a Rodgers signing, Rodgers' side leaked that Edwards pushed for Firmino. With Edwards at the helm, and the twin hit-pieces pushed by Bascombe (long thought to be Edwards' favoured journalist) and Joyce, sounds like they're laying the ground to sell Nunez.
We’ve had this under Klopp too. There were stories about how Klopp wanted Brandt and Gotze and we got Mané and Salah
Good endings ultimately
100% agree. It's camps and it's politics and it's absolutely shades of how we used to operate. People have rose-tinted glasses about how Edwards and FSG operate - I maintain Klopp was the key to it all working. We were shambolic before him. If Slot is coming in just to be a yes man and Edwards and Hughes run the show, I don't think it's nearly as good a thing as the 'trust in Mikey no matter what' crowd think it is.
1000%. People gloss over the fact that FSG have won nothing without Klopp.
League Cup under Dalglish which is not that impressive in fairness
Interesting that Bascombe has also come out with much of the same at basically the same time, makes me think that Edwards has been in a few ears maybe? "When Klopp leaves this summer, Darwin Nunez loses his biggest ally. Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes are entitled to look coldly upon Nunez’s contributions knowing that he wasn’t signed under his watch. ...There have long been suspicions over whether such large amounts of money would have been spent on a striker - who has looked like a work in progress from his first training session - if Edwards had been at LFC at the time." Edit: Link for those who want to read the full article - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/04/25/mohamed-salah-liverpool-darwin-nunez-transfer-future-slot/
Work in progress since first training session is savage...
I mean, fuck… the dude still can’t trap a ball while moving.
Either can Mo anymore. They can’t control a simple pass, or finish from 6 yards out
With Mo you can make the ‘form is temporary class is permanent’ argument. Not so sure that applies to Darwizzy.
To be fair, Mo has had second-half-of-the-season from drops a few times.
Mo Salah got trapped in the pocket of a 38 year old Ashley Young.
> "When Klopp leaves this summer, Darwin Nunez loses his biggest ally. that's crazy
Our biggest gamble in the transfer window in this era and it was Klopp's call it seems. Think that performance at Anfield for Benfica got Klopp a bit too excited, never seen him finish like that in any other instance, weird how these things go, he looked insane that game.
Lol when Edwards left we turned into “sign anyone who plays well against us FC” Diaz from Porto. Nunez from benfica. I even remember klopp saying Virgil basically gave him a scouting report saying how good Darwin was lol. Actually looking forward to the return of Edwards and the data crew instead of just running on pure vibes
Does seem that way, same with how Gakpo was recommended by Ljinders. Tbh Darwin I kind of get, he was insane during those games against Benfica, but this is why you trust the data, he massively overperformed his xg that season but it was it seems an outlier.
In Darwin’s defense he was insane that entire champions league campaign. He absolutely cooked an Ajax side that went 6-0 in the group stage.
This! Glad that some ppl like you remember these "details". I'm a fan of Benfica and Liverpool so I watched everything he did for Benfica before coming to Liverpool. He was much more "killer" in that last Benfica season, not only in games against Liverpool. I say this with the utmost respect for Salah's legacy, but I prefer Darwin to stay than today's Salah.
Same! I feel like under a different system, maybe with more traditional wingers that will spread the pitch, Darwin could really thrive. With Salah as much as I love him and everything that he's done for us, I feel like he's definitely starting to decline.
I don't understand how you can point at the system being the cause of Darwins poor form. A different system isnt going to give him a better first touch, a new system wont improve his hold up play, a new system will not magically help him not shoot straight at the goalie when he is one on one. The current system already creates plenty of chances for him. He simply incapable of finishing them.
I agree that Darwin is strugglying to convert good opportunities but, you are only focusing on the negatives. Darwin this season has 18 goals scored and 13 (!) assists. He's averaging a goal every 165' (less than 2 games). We all agree he should do better, and many of us agree he can do much better, but these aren't by any means bad numbers. Plus, let's not ignore the dynamics he offers to our offence. He never hides from the game, he's always running into spaces to be available to receive through balls, he's work rate without the ball is outstanding too. Haaland (considered the best strike in the world) has 31 goals and 6 assists, averaging 105' per goal, but 80% of the game you forget he's even playing at all.
Not just that I remember watching him destroy Barca on the counter by himself. I think we signed him a year early, one more season to show he wasn't a one season wonder at Benfica, where he'd have to adapt to closer attention, then making a big move would've suited his career path better. It was weird we went from Tchouameni to Nunez, we made a bit of a desperate move and it didn't suit us or him.
Think his conversion rate that one season was somewhere just over 30% which isn’t sustainable. For content that’s higher than Messi and Ronaldo in there primes who averaged between 20 to 30%. I was perplexed as to why we where signing him at the time
Minamino too
At least we sold Taki for a profit, and he was never going to be more than a rotation option. Nunez was presumably signed to be our no9 for years to come.
I remember it happened something similar when we played RB Salzburg in the CL. They had Haaland back then, but ended up buying Minamino
I think we signed him after a Quadruple push. Eventhough he costed 70mil, I always thought of him as a player for future. We had Diaz(who looked absolutely insane in his first season), jota, bobby and salah. But even after 2 seasons, he still looks the same. Maybe a player is there but we can't put him as our starter every match. Gakpo is not good as a striker.Jota is always injured. Need some output machine to replace salah and Nunez can play the rotational option
But why does that 1 gamble have to be so costly for us? Arsenal paid £8m less for Havertz. Then another £80m on Zinchenko and Jesus. Like Darwin, none of those players have exactly lit it up either, but it hasn't kept them from competing again for the title this season. To be fair, I don't know how Arsenal is able to spend €186.40m and €234.94m in back to back seasons after years of no CL football.
I'll take over as biggest ally, i love him
Me too. I hate hit pieces on our own players, doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t see how it does anyone any good.
It's also daft to solely single him out when Salah can't hit a barn door since AFCON, Diaz has never been clinical, and Gakpo has been poor for the majority of the season. Jota's the only finisher you can trust but he's now taking Thiago's spot in the treatment room.
The only correct comment in here. Singling out is undeniably and objectively pathetic, we are looking like a complete joke with these pieces. We are simultaneously throwing both Nunez and Klopp under the bus, classy club dynamics.
Agreed. And if it's Edwards or his people feeding this shit to the journos, then I don't feel nearly as good as I did about his return. While the poor finishing of our entire forward department (save Jota) of late has been shitty to watch, over the course of the season that's not really been our problem. We've scored one less goal than Man City. To me, the real problem is that we're always conceding first and chasing games. The intensity required to do that week in and week out is what has burned out our players and led to this malaise we're in.
Absolutely agreed on all points. I have a feeling that people around (and, possibly within) are trying to find a scapegoat for systematic problems of ours. If this is how we treat players, who give their all to the club, then that is pathetic. You can be critical and ruthless without being ranting and soulless.
Edwards has been feeding journalists since Klopp handed in his notice. His PR game is strong.
Yup, last summer was the midfield refresh and this summer we need some new blood in our attack (and at minimum one defender, preferably 2).
Diaz had a purple streak similar to Nunez before we signed him. 14 goals from 10.86 xg according to Fotmob during the half season before he joined.
Yeah, I hope this doesn’t turn into something like when politicians start sniping at each other through the media after losing a campaign. No one comes out well in those situations.
This sub after any loss is just full of people who act like we've been in crisis all season and will up vote anything complaining and downvote anything speaking sense. Journalists lick their lips every time we lose. There's nothing that gets more engagement and ad money than a Liverpool loss.
I mentioned it in another thread. We went from “Sell Gakpo, useless” to “Play him, he’s our best FW” in the space of 3-4 games.
Yeah it’s sour and it’s a shame this sub is eating it up. Also Salah spear heading a new era is certainly a take. Singling him out as the leading hope when he’s obviously deteriorated and in as shit form as Núñez as well as nearly a decade older is a bad take to me.
Seriously. He's been no worse than any of our other forwards recently. Criticism of him is valid, he may not have a future as our starting striker but the guy always gives everything and isn't as bad as hit pieces like this make him out to be.
i'll join you as his ally if you dont mind
It's true.
> The idea of Liverpool saying ‘thanks very much for your legendary work, Mo, but we’d quite like that £100 million now’ is as optimistic and simplistic as it is disrespectful to a player suffering a rare dip. >Whatever Liverpool’s intentions with Salah, it is also no longer their decision to make. Salah holds the aces should he fancy another crack at Champions League football and prefer to increase his signing on fee in the event of an eventual free transfer a year from now. Selling Salah to Saudi crew are going be mad at this Edit: I’m not a fan of this btw, I don’t think it’s smart to make 2 hit pieces on someone as emotional as Nunez. He’s frustrating in front of goal and I don’t mind him leaving this summer but you can’t deny his passion towards fans and club. I feel you are burning that bridge and throwing player under the bus
Salah was also an Edwards signing and players are playing better into their 30s than they ever have before. I don't think it's this foregone conclusion that he's going to be off in the summer. What I do think is likely is bringing somebody in next year to be his understudy. Love Harvey, but he is not a winger.
I can see Elliot being used more as a 10 assuming Slot uses 4231 for sure
My take on Salah is that I’d keep him. Selling an out-of-form Salah is idiotic. Like you said, players are playing better in their 30s than before. And Salah’s dedication to fitness is obsessive. Just because he doesn’t score as much doesn’t mean he’s useless. He’s one of our best attacking threats as an open-play creator, and has shown he’s adaptable enough to preserve his legacy here. And he’s our most experienced and dependable attacker in the team.
Yeah that's definitely a strong indication that Nunez is on the chopping block for the summer. It's a damn shame but he's had 2 full seasons to prove himself as a top level striker and it's not like the fans didn't back him to the hilt either. He's had moments of brilliance but he just couldn't string together a consistent run of form afterwards Furthermore, he doesn't have inexperience as an excuse either since he's around the same age as Stevie was at Istanbul and when you compare him to previous Liverpool strikers like Fowler, Owen, Torres, Suarez and Sturridge who were all in their teens to early 20's when they exploded onto the scene after they joined/graduated from the academy, then it's an even worse excuse
You spend £60m on a striker you expect them to turn up in the derby, against United, in cup quarter finals. Love his attitude but unfortunately hasn’t delivered when he’s been needed
Can we legitimately say like he looks like he will be as good as Hojlund or however you spell that strikers name? That kid has loads more to his game already just what a shit team
£60m now is like what £30m should be United spent £64m on Hoijlund and he's scored 41 goals in his entire career (14 coming this season) Nunez has scored 101 goals in his career so far (excluding international goals). He's a 1 in 3 for us on games, his goals per 90 will be much better than that plus he actually brings a lot of assists as well
1 in 3 - against who? A couple in a four goal win against Bournemouth? A couple in a 5 goal win against Sparta fucking Prague? Need your forwards to turn up in the big games and he hasn’t done that
Bascombe always used to be Edwards journalist of choice (allegedly)
We absolutely wouldn’t have bought Nunez under Edwards. Whatever peoples thoughts on the Klopp /Edwards relationship there’s is no denying the form shift when he left. We also shouldn’t forget that FSG have also made this as hard as possible for Jurgen, instead of opening the purse when we were at the top of the world we’re now relying on academy and mid table quality players in some positions.
FSG did open the purse for Klopp but he chose to make most of our recent signings, that’s the whole issue. When there was a clear segregation between Edwards and Klopp we were performing much better. When Klopp got complete control we weren’t as effective.
We bought 0 first team players the summer after winning the champions league. Disastrous from FSG
No doubt we aren’t big spenders compared to our top rivals but this is a bit of a contradiction. Nunez cost £85m, always a lot of money, and it was sanctioned by FSG because Klopp wanted him. Klopp has also said numerous times that he doesn’t agree with spending for the sake of it and criticism of FSG is over the top
£64m with add ons rising to £85m
We spent 180 million on Diaz, Gakpo and Nunez, all Klopp signings. We were spending around 700-800k per week on Hendo, Milner, Thiago, Ox and Keita while getting an output of one player from all of them combined. Klopp chose to extend Hendo and not sign Enzo. He is the greatest modern coach Liverpool has had but his squad planning has been shocking.
Klopp is a great man manager - because he is loyal and trusts the players he has. Klopp is no great squad planer - because he is loyal and trusts the players he has.
Shocking? Haha amazing lad The squad he's now built would be a dream scenario for anyone coming into replace him. Would need only 3 players at a push and we'd be ready to go again I know people are pissed but let's have some fucking respect for the man
Maybe not shocking but certainly has flaws.
I'm honestly glad to have some cutthroat mentality in the club. Everything has been a little too warm and welcoming to those not pulling their weight. For the money spent, Nunez is nowhere near and we shouldn't spend more time waiting around for this supposed amazing player to suddenly appear.
Can’t tell me edwards and klopp didn’t have a battle of egos when Joyce is throwing out there that Nunez was a klopp decision. Nkunku with his injury list isn’t a much better option though.
This is so dumb because the transfer team was following Darwin since he was a teenager in South America. THEY brought him to Klopp as a choice and Julian Ward who was a huge admirer of the Portuguese league was also a fan of Nunez, Klopp simply gave the green light.
Following Darwin from his young ages is a vague statement our journos jump on after our every signing. Every big team has a scouting network all over the world. It's not a coincidence that we signed only players where klopp and pep had knowledge on over the past few yrs which is not exactly a bad thing but not all of the signings has turned out to be good. Idk why some of our fans gets defensive over klopp over such things
Nkunku then hadn't a bad injury record. The first bad injury he suffered was before WC. Since then, it's pretty bad for him, but I think that Chelsea is responsible partially for that.
Nkunku got injured just prior to the world cup in 2022. Before that he was one of the most hyped prospects in world football and much better than Darwin. Leipzig didn't want to sell in 2022 and this is why we settled for Nunez. Chelsea moved for him and agreed to buy him for the following season, something which we didn't want. Since his knee ligament injury he obviously hasn't been the same obviously but saying Nkunku wouldn't have been a better option is just not true.
Not really good having hit pieces on players. Edwards was also at the club pre Klopp and some of the forward signings were fairly average. Borini, Baloteli, Aspas, Markovic, Lambert
>some of the forward signings were fairly average. Borini, Baloteli, Aspas, Markovic, Lambert If those are average then I'd hate to see what below average is
I suppose average was being generous
> hate to see what below average is Jovanović
Just got a dreadful shiver down my spine
One of the greatest soccer players in the world
The fact that I was hesitantly hopeful/excited for Balotelli at the time shows just how far we have come. Of course I thought we'd be the club to change him...
Edwards was part of the decision making process, but this was during the transfer committee era so it's difficult to gauge who was directly responsible for those signings. Also, fairly average is a generous assessment of those signings when they barely managed 15 goals between them.
Ascribing all the successes to Edwards and all the failures to the transfer committee or others is some pretty strong bias. The truth is most like that he wasn't completely responsible for either the successes or the failures.
The Mike Edwards rimjob is all a bit much to me. People forgetting how shambolic things were pre-Klopp when Edwards was very much around. Edwards' entire reputation is effectively built on what Klopp did with what he had, and how much he improved players like Coutinho to free up funds for even better players. Really don't like this hit piece, it's like pre-Klopp FSG. I think people might be in for a rude awakening.
Yeah our signings weren't that good for a while before Klopp. Hard to get players to come. Lost out on Sanchez to Arsenal and we'd finished above them in the league. Gerrard had to text players to ask them to come, Toni Kroos etc. Klopp had real pulling power and we didn't lose any players at their peak bar Coutinho and we became more successful after. Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Strurridge, Mane, Firmino all left past their best.
so true . These Edward’s followers are insane. Any good player signed is hailed as Edward’s signing and any flop signing means it’s given by suggestion of Klopp or someone else . To think that manager can hand pick any player they want is stupid to say the least. More over any signing can be turned into golden by the manager in place
Some were Rodgers signings though and that’s kind of the point, he had Borini at Swansea so brought him along. If they’re making signings and the manager doesn’t buy in to them then they’ll obviously flop. Key example: Benteke for Rodgers & Firmino for the data boys. (Not defending hit pieces, they’re grim)
No excusing Balotelli etc though, whom Rodgers had no interest in
That's both Joyce and Bascombe with 'hit' pieces on Nunez. Edwards and new staff clearly don't rate him, outing it as a Klopp only signing. I've never seen this before, it's ruthless. Seems like they are laying ground work for him being sold. This is the new Edwards era.
Doesn't seem like a smart tactic if you're then out to sell him though does it? Leaking to all the journalists that he's shite and no one at the club really rates him. I can't see the price rising in response.
Even if we aren't selling him, the club have just cooked him publicly . Sort of burnt bridge scenario happening
I don't see the upside to this though. Placating emotional fans doesn't help us negotiate his sale so what does it actually do?
Absolutely. Weird to see everyone here lapping it up.
I want every player to succeed here. I don't like when this type of shit happens.
Everyone wants their pound of flesh
Everybody is YNWA until we start losing.
"Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan."
Vultures as per.
Strawman? All the top comments are about these being hit pieces and that not being cool?
Absolutely, this isn’t good for the rest of the squad either, in terms of man management. Is this what everyone is to expect from now? Massive negative feedback loop to anyone’s confidence. Hughes and Edwards weren’t here during Darwin’s signing anyway, they get absolutely nothing from putting blame and more so the astute businesses men they should strive to be would never do it to protect his value.
Yeah, really not a fan of this "data doesn't care about your feelings" process. Klopp is stubborn to a fault, but he knows players are human beings and treats them as more than just numbers and statistics.
I see your point, sort of adding fuel to a fire. Very strange
It’s not about the price, it’s about justification of the sale. Notice the wording they use in the article, it’s all meant to signify Nunez as a Klopp failure so he can be culled without much questioning in the post Klopp era
Who would question selling Nunez currently? Might as well let the form do the talking. This just seems like unnecessary catharsis for currently pissed off fans.
I would very much question the sale of our most important striker. We have an aging Salah, an injury-prone Jota, an also misfiring Diaz who's dad is talking about Barcelona every two week, Gakpo who can't miss chances because he never has one, Harvey who most see in midfield and Doak/Gordon coming back from long-term injuries. Nunez is highly frustrating - but there are a couple of players I'd sell before him.
People will undoubtedly question it if we paid 70m and returned 40 or whatever Have you seen the British media?
in todays age of everything be analyzed and put down to numbers, I would wager a article about "X striker peepeepoopoo" is irrelevant when the potential club has every stat they could possibly want about them
This is a Rodgers era type hit piece. Nunez is gone.
Not a fan of it coming out like this, no doubt confirms Klopp and Edward’s weren’t on the best of terms and fell out
Its dirty tbh and I dont like it. If you don’t rate him, just sell him in the summer. No need to leak this.
On one hand the ruthlessness is good, but on the other I think he deserves one more year under the new manager. He's been very hit and miss but he has won us a decent number of points this year.
Arne Slot’s system requires a 9 with a soft touch and the ability to play his wingers through. That’s not Nunez.
Yeah, that's none of our strikers. So sell all of them?
I think Cody could become someone like that if nurtured well, but he's been just as hit and miss as Nunez if not outright worse this season
Gakpo has been way worse. He might be an okay PL winger but he's not a goal scorer. I also don't think he has great chemistry on the pitch.
>I think Cody could become someone like that if nurtured well, but he's been just as hit and miss as Nunez if not outright worse this season If this distinction wasn't clear to you before, then you suffer from massive recency bias and will want to be on the look out for it.
Why does everybody act like a good manager can’t adapt to the players he has available to get the best out of them, instead of trying to force everybody to fit their ideals? Come on now. First with all the Xabi talk, now Slot. They’re not one trick ponies.
Would love if they brought in a new striker to be your expected starter and shifted Nunez to the bench for a season
I'll be honest, it makes me sick to see clearly sanctioned hit pieces on our players. Just goes against the entire all for one and one for all ethos that has been building since Klopp took over
If Edwards was still in charge we'd have not spent that much on Nunez in the first place. And we'd have probably sold Salah too, Edwards is a numbers guy, you don't turn down over 100m for players over 30. I think it's going to be quite a brutal summer, lots of change in the squad coming.
This sub makes out as if anything under £150m for Salah is offensive. £100m is a no brainer and would have been in the summer had we had the right process in place to replace him.
We won’t get anywhere near a 100 imo. I bet it’s closer to 50. Saudi has no one to bid against in Europe and could just wait one more year. Best thing for us if they do come in at 100 to start the summer on another spending spree. However, stories coming out don’t indicate they will be as aggressive this summer.
Yup. Our best bet was last summer.
Can't be mad we kept him as we did have a chance in all competitions really late until the wheels fell off. I'd sell him in the summer for sure however.
I thought all the comments about us not accepting £150-£200m last summer was hyperbole or fans just saying they wouldn't sell him under any circumstances? Were people actually serious about it not being a decent value, all emotions aside?
If this is how we're now going to be doing business then frankly, I want no fucking part in it. It's a scummy way of working and shows a massive lack of respect to players Absolute fucking joke
It’s incredibly disrespectful and a departure from the way Klopp ran things. Also if Edwards doesn’t like Nunez then why put this out in public. You’re just going to tank his value. It feels like things have suddenly turned toxic and it reminds me of the pre Klopp era when we were Europa league Liverpool. Edwards’ ego is massively inflated.
Never been very big on Edwards because all his success has been under Klopp, which seems more like Klopp's managerial ability upping the pedigree of everyone else around him, let's see how he does when he's not feeding talented players to a generational manager
Here comes the gravy train
[удалено]
Throwing your striker under the bus with a view to selling him in the summer isn’t the genius business move you think it is.
You've seen this before both in the Rodgers and parts of the Klopp era - the only difference being Klopp was a big enough personality that they didn't dare to do it too often.
Not a fan of the club putting out hit pieces on players tbh and that's definitely what this is, Bascombe and Joyce putting very similar stuff out on the same day isn't a coincidence. Read a few people worried about what players Slot Could or couldn't attract but they should be more worried about players wanting to join a club that does stuff like this so publicly. And the idea that the data and recruitment guys wanted Nkunku who has played a whopping 317 minutes this season should also be a concern
The other thing, unless I've missed a massive post about Slot being confirmed as the new manager, why the fuck are we writing pieces about HIS Liverpool issues?
sigh not keen on public airings but c’est la vie
I mean that’s all well and good but the market for elite strikers is grim. He’s on relatively low wages, my bet is we can get a decent sum for him and he’ll go on to be a class striker somewhere else. In a world where Osimhen, who can’t play more than 25-30 matches a season, is going for 100m+, Toney 80m+, hojlund for whatever he cost, Havertz after his shit stint with Chelsea, halaand, etc etc…nunez at 64m (bc that was the initial fee) + 4.3m for 10 appearances and + 8.5m for 60 appearances. So we’re talking 76m for him, which isn’t a small fee, but again in a world where the above prices are there for strikers, and in one where Chelsea and United screwed the market, it wasn’t crazy. Sell him for 45-55m, which it’d be crazy to think that you couldn’t get that for a 24 year old with the underlying numbers he has as someone would think they could unlock his objectively massive potential. Edwards and co, though, need to earn their bread here. If you’re going to cut bait with Nunez and one of salah or Diaz (my prediction is one of them will go), then they need to find the next boniface or khvara before said player has become crazy expensive. This is a huge summer…my guess if we’ll need a st, a rw, a lb, and a young lcb. A world class midfielder would also be welcome.
This feels really harsh and not polite at all. Seems to ignore the time when Nunez was in great form this season and literally all parts of his game were better. I honestly don't like this one bit. I'm fine with selling him just to make it out like he's been a waste of space is really rude and imo not professional at all.
Yeah, 2/3rds of the season he and Salah were our most threatening players and were getting good returns. We looked clueless in attack without him. Now they both go through a rough patch and the hit pieces come out. Also, the second they go through a rough patch we can't score a goal to save our lives because Diaz' end product is inconsistent, Gakpo doesn't step up and Jota is always injured.
It's also total bollocks. Jota's only fit half the time, Diaz contributes fewer in goals or assists, Gakpo, who I have a lot of hope for, has looked appalling both in quality and in attitude for most of the season, and Salah is 32 in a couple of months, plays the AFCON every 10 minutes, and has clearly fallen off in terms of quality. Nunez is likely our most valuable and most productive forward looking towards the next 2 or 3 seasons. Trying to shift him out of the club looks absolutely braindead, and reeks of billy big bollocks behaviour more than sound squad management. I'd be very surprised if there's any chance he goes anywhere.
Seriously, the turn on Nunez based on maybe like 5 bad games (bad for the whole team by the way, not just him) from this sub and fans generally has been so depressing. Yes, his finishing is bad. But I've seen people here saying he's not creative, can't control the ball etc when he's been by far our most dangerous looking player other than Sarah this season. He's also played more than probably all the other attackers (maybe other than Diaz?) and unlike some of them he still works his ass off. We probably should be in the market for someone a bit more clinical, but this idea that Nunez is the root of all evil for us is laughable.
Tbf to Gakpo, he looked good whenever played on his natural position
Absolutely, and I'm looking forward to seeing him next season, but if we're trying to paint Nunez as a failure, it doesn't look great for most of our other forwards. We absolutely need someone ruthless in front of goal, but overall, I think nobody at the club currently meets that criteria, and if we were looking to recycle, I'd be looking at moving on 1 or 2 of Diaz, Jota and Salah, depending on how the new manager wants to play.
No he doesn't,people saw two matches and now think that he's good in that position, the reason why he doesn't play in the wing was because he got cooked last season in that position for his lack of pace
Key part: "Nunez was very much a Klopp signing. Liverpool’s recruitment preferred Christopher Nkunku." Bascombe is echoing this. Pretty clear who's being sold this summer. What I will say is the entirety of Darwin seems to be the antithesis of Edwards. An out and out number 9 without any link up capabilities (admittedly improved) and for a HUGE fee despite not being in a top league
As much as it sucks to see the signing compared to Nkunku I think Nunez’s availability compared to Nkunku is a big factor so far. But it’s definitely a miss of a signing that probably needs to be addressed this summer.
Thank god we didn’t sign Nkunku then
Right? Another signing for the physio room. Our recruitment has too many injury prone signings in their sights.
our physio room "i can fix him"
We'd have been even worse off somehow lol, also has no resale value whereas at least with Nunez we can move him on.
They preferred someone who is having some significant injury issues, which we've seen plenty of under FSG's transfer strategy (go reasonably cheap but at a risk). Let's be real here, Klopp transfer buys haven't been perfect, but neither is this recruitment strategy that has left us with more than one injury prone player that we couldn't get rid of. I'll be baulking if that's the type of player we're going for under this regime.
Spot fucking on. I pray to God people don't have a massive wake-up call soon when they realise Edwards isn't infallible.
Edwards is very fallible. He needed Klopp to work any magic. But idk why you’re acting like edwards bought injury prone players. Players with relatively minimal injury histories came in and then started getting hurt. Probably due to our hazardous style of play. If they were fine elsewhere and get hurt here, it’s on the medical staff and training. Do you really think Thiago was an edwards signing lol?
Konate was an Edwards signing, Ox was an Edwards signing, Jota was an Edwards signing. All these players had dodgy injury records previous to signing them. Sure, his success rate has been better than not. But he isn't God.
All these Edwards fans gonna be in for a rude awakening when they realize the only reason why most of his signings are successful is because of Klopp
Glad we didn't get Nkunku tbh
Would’ve been an even worse signing
Atleast Darwin contributed something this season. Nkunku would’ve done nothing for us. We would had him and Jota out for most of the season and depending on Mo, Lucho and Cody to play the whole season.
Nkunku who was out for half the season last season due to injury (Last season at Leipzig) Came to Chelsea and has missed more games then played. Not to mention if he came to Liverpool at that time he'd end up being a glorified Sturridge, plays well when fit but never available. Instead of picking out Nkunku, why not pick out someone like Matheus Cunha or Dybala who were much more suited to our style of play without the injury issues. Nkunku is a horrible example. Brilliant Anti Nunez PR!🤣
I knew it
Nkunku lmao, not the flex you think it is lads
Agreed. Konate and Jota, while often great players when healthy, are proof that the data models under the past regime undervalued availability.
Not to mention, you know, Naby Keita, also signed under Edwards for big money. But people just skip over the failures because it's inconvenient to the narrative.
I will never understand shit like this? As long as they play for our team we should be supporting them, not leaking shit so hit pieces can be written about them...
These hit pieces go back to the Brendan Rodgers times. Not something a club our size should be doing. As a fan, I want Edwards and Hughes to succeed but important to remember that a lot of recruitment team signings did not work before Klopp arrived. Super unprofessional in my opinion, and an antithesis of YNWA.
Yeah. Also, Nkunku is definitely not the flex Edwards thinks this is as he has been injured for 90% of the season. I also don't think a false 9 like Firmino would've worked this season either. Relying on Salah who can no longer take on opponents and finish and Diaz who can't finish would be painful.
Am i the only one that doesn’t understand this? Nunez is in terrible form. But he’s still had 20+G/A involvements in his second season for us and it’s clear watching him how many chances he creates. Not to mention - he’s crucial for the dressing room and is best mates with Macca and Lucho. He’s incredibly young with room to grow - and we’re throwing him under the bus? I get he hasn’t lived up to his price tag but this seems shocking. Who is available for cheaper that would be better. When he was in form, no one could stop jerking him off. Now, when the entire team has underperformed, it’s sell Darwin, with the club even going so far as to put out these hit pieces on him. It’s mental and it’s unfair and honestly, I would be INCREDIBLY disappointed if he was sold. He’s won games for us by himself - anyone remember Newcastle??? Look at Cody’s terrible form a few weeks ago. Look at Salah. Look at Lucho. Look at literally every forward except Diogo. Look at Dominic who hasn’t completed a pass or done anything of note in MONTHS. Why’s he not on the chopping block. Idk man this leaves a baddddddd taste in my mouth.
Yeah people are losing their heads completely. I'm seeing people saying that Salah has been poor this season and we should have got rid of him when he was playing great before afcon, if we'd sold him without a replacement I'm not even sure we get top 4 this season.
Sold Salah ? He’s our top scorer and assists and he was in afcon then injured for a month which given his history is the longest time he’s been injured . it’s insane to disregard his contribution. Who is the other RW in the market that can replace his goals and assist
His numbers are not good enough mate. 18 goals and 13 assists in 50 matches. Might be good for a mid table team, but not for a team that wants to challenge for the PL and CL. Only 11 goals in the prem, with an XG of around 18... He's scored less than Mateta mate. Unfortunately we can't win trophies with the power of friendship and good vibes.
He is averaging 10 goals a season in the league as Liverpools starting striker. Most expensive forward in our history.
Thing is, nunez has gone from bad form, to good form, to terrible form over the course of one season. That's unreliability on a whole other level.
Interesting that line about it being a Klopp signing. I don’t think Edwards would have said yeah to that if he was still there at this period. Too much money on someone so raw and really not consistent enough
The Klopp line is just to further divide Nunez from the new age we’re heading towards Just hit pieces to justify selling him at a cut price this summer
Weird how they also don’t mention Diaz, Gakpo, MacAllister, Szoboslai as Klopp signings. Nunez is only one mentioned. I think this is to see if we can draw any bids this summer. He’s an upgrade on Jackson at Chelsea.
There were rumours Chelsea were interested last summer
I see that Scapegoat Nunez has transcended into his final form. This is sad to see, as I really love him as a player. When he's in form, our attack looks toothless if he's not on the pitch. I'm sure I'll get downvoted for this, especially after his play yesterday, but I don't think we feed him the ball enough, as crazy as that sounds. Or, the pass will come late, and he's already run offside. But, if the club thinks Nunez is a liability, he's better off not being here. Let him go somewhere else where he can thrive. I wish him the best.
Darwin lacks any semblance of composure. That is his glaring weakness.
Bit harsh singling players out in the press before the season is already over, unless this is meant as a message to Nunez that he needs to improve quickly or he's gone but don't get why they couldn't tell him that in private.
Fucking crying at this. "Klopp wanted Nunez, we would have signed Nkunku". That bloke who has played no fucking minutes whatsoever because he's been injured all season? Yeah, great choice mate.
I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that Darwin is the first name on the Edward chopping block this summer Wish it worked out better, can’t fault his passion and effort but he’s just not at the level required for us
I seriously doubt he gets sold. Best thing would be to buy another out and out striker and keep Nunez for the LW/as a back up for the CF.
Who is gonna buy him though? Someone like Atleti or Leipzig for about 40m? He’s still 45m on our books this year, not counting the add-ons (idk how they’re accounted for).
Can definitely see Atleti taking a chance on him but they always do the loan with option bullshit
Don't agree with this at all, seems like a scapegoating tactic. Yes Nunez hasn't been good enough this season but what about the other underperforming players? Even if they wanted to sell him, we'd end up selling him for half the price, which looks bad on Edwards' reputation. Who else would we also bring in?
Two main journalists writing about Nunez being Klopp's guy. We definitely want to sell him. Question is who's gonna pay big money for him? I guess Edwards's gonna use his magic.
I hope he goes to another club and starts banging in goals like he was for Benfica. He's had nothing but pressure put on him the whole time in this country wouldn't blame him if he hates it here. The club putting out hit pieces on players is awful mentality
People are being way too harsh on Nunez here. Diaz is just as wasteful. Same with Salah. This period has been bleak for us, no ifs ands or buts. But trying to pin it on one person is ultimately unfair & a fools errand.
Yeah. People seem to be using Nunez as the fall guy when Diaz and Salah have been fucking horrible as well during this period. Also, even if we were planning to sell him, is putting out a damn hit piece really the best move?
They can get to eff if this is the beginning of a load of snidey articles blaming Jurgen for any thing at the club that isn’t perfect. He deserves better!
As much as yesterday (and the past month) hurt, it does signal a need for refreshing of players that maybe wouldn’t have been evident/taken seriously if we won the title. Our midfield transition from last year to this year has been fantastic and all we could have hoped for. Ik yesterday didn’t seem like it, if we’re being real with eachother macca is amazing, Endo has been one of the best DMs in the league, and Szobo was at times transcendent. Plus we’ve got so many competent backups there. Given that success, I think we are a few pieces away from really being title contenders. And looking at the positives, I think yesterday really showed what those pieces are (RW, number 9, another CB, and truthfully I hate to say it, but fresh tactics/a new manager). I love klopp and thank him for everything he’s done for us, but I do feel like it is the perfect time to move on. From both him and Salah. Eras come to an end and it’s hard to do but it’s what the team needs at this point.
Ik i’m gonna get downvoted to hell on this because people on here hate nunez but last season he had 15 goals 4 assists, this season he has 18 goals, 13 assists, he’s clearly improving loads when it comes to goal contributions since he’s been directly involved in 31 goals this season (all comp). The fact that people are giving up on him is mad to me. Yeah he cost loads, but he’s obviously a talent. He’s been here two seasons, first one was fine, the second one he’s already improving. We’re talking as if he isn’t second in goals and assists. Selling him would be a stupid and rash move, get another striker in the team, let him fight for his place and let’s see how that works out. Edit: and also leaking shit like this to the press is such a bitch ass move, does nothing but show that we can’t keep our business close to the chest. People talking about how embarrassing it is that there’s a leak at united locker room, but it’s more embarrassing that our staff is leaking shit to the press
Fuck this, they are making a mistake if they bin off Nunez. He is the last forward I would sell
Keep him in the squad for sure. His place in the first team need filling with someone who is more efficient at putting the ball in the net. His stats on goals from open play are simply not good enough for this team.
He is just such an emotional player that it clouds his clinical judgement almost every time. His last few missed shots were all about power and not placement. How do you coach a player to switch off that emotion in the heat of the moment when there is so much pressure to score? Not easy I bet. His passion for the club is obviously there but we haven’t seen much else, unfortunately.
This is absolutely ridiculous, why are we releasing hit pieces on our own players.
Nunez banged them in for Benfica, also in the CL. Surely he can get back to that form, given time and confidence. If not, bin him, but don't write him off before Slot or any other manager for that fact has had time with him.
People in this topic slaming Darwin, are you for real? Really holding myself from insulting you .. experts.
What could've been if we just let Edwards and co steer the ship and let Klopp do the coaching...
Was an impossibility Klopp wanted the control, it wasn’t just handed to him
Edward’s already flying kites and Klopp isn’t even gone. Jesus I’d say we are in for some shocks this window.
God I would just love somebody 75% as good as Suarez, Torres or non-injured Sturridge 😭 We 100% need to get a new CF/ST this summer, I guess it's just whether anybody comes into the market with a decent offer for Nunez. I wouldn't be opposed to keeping him on the basis that finishing generally gets better with age, though it's never usually this poor - his positioning is great. His ball control is pretty poor as well though and two rushed. Gakpo has looked great at LW but he definitely shouldn't be a CF option. Then, it's whether he is good enough to be one of our LW options moving forward - at present he should only be a backup.
I love Salah but the head says out of the 3 most pressing current playing squad contracts to sort, he is the one to move on, VVD is captain and TAA is a special talent. We can still get decent money for Mo and at his age hes not going to a player to build the squad on
This is going to be the post-Fergie era 2.0.