Darwin Nunez FORCED Liverpool into momentous change

Liverpool were forced to make a big change - and Darwin Nunez is the ultimate reason why. But will they reap the rewards?

The Darwin Nunez project could be coming to a close. Liverpool signed the player back in 2022 but he's failed to live up to his enormous potential.

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The Reds have stuck with him, certainly, and last season saw incredibly promising returns. But Nunez has struggled to stay in Arne Slot's team - and now there's a sense he could be moved on.

Liverpool reportedly set an asking price for Nunez recently and Anfield Watch exclusively revealed that the Saudi Pro League wants to bring him there. The Uruguayan isn't necessarily against the idea, either.

So what happened? Well, Liverpool have already admitted defeat on this one in a sense. Nunez now stands as the perfect example of why they made a fundamental change in the summer.

Richard Hughes in, Nunez out

Nunez wasn't signed the same way most of Liverpool's squad was signed. He was a Jurgen Klopp idea.

Klopp was a big fan, especially after coming up against Nunez at Benfica. The German saw him as the future of Liverpool's front line and given the situation at the time, the club signed him.

But he wasn't a 'planned' arrival and many at the club didn't see the plan with him. Mo Salah, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz - they were signings by committee, rather than a figurehead.

And so with Klopp gone, Nunez doesn't really have the same support, nor is there anyone who knows what to do with him. He was signed for one man and now he's a square peg in a round hole.

Liverpool really, really don't like this kind of situation. They want a plan for all their arrivals, typically because they meet the right fit for the rest of the squad.

And that drove the big change at Anfield in 2024. Richard Hughes arrived as Sporting Director and, importantly, Slot is a 'head coach'.

This was Liverpool doubling down on a 'committee', rather than a powerful figurehead like Klopp. And that's not to say that Klopp was wrong, either.

The 'problem' is that when a signing is made by one person, there's confusion, should that person leave or change their mind. The overall plan falls to one side and at a club like Liverpool, that's poison.

They want plans and ideas fully fleshed for everything. Every player isn't just tracked with data - they're scouted, their personality is researched, video analysis is done by the bucketload.

The result is a signing with little risk. That wasn't the case with Nunez and he's now the poster child for why they wanted a new sporting director and a 'head coach' over a 'manager'.

Does the new system work? Well, it's hard to say given Federico Chiesa is the only first-team addition and he never plays. You could argue immediately that the Italian shows why managers should sign players, in fact.

But that's not the way Liverpool want to do things. They're backing their transfer committee and Nunez is really the reason personified.

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