Luis Suarez prediction could still come true to solve Liverpool’s £85m mystery

He is, to echo the famous phrase, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

And after a debut season that began with a bang and ended with a whimper, Liverpool are still no nearer to determining exactly how Darwin Nunez can make a maximum impact at Anfield.

It would be fair to say the Uruguay international striker was on the radar of only a few Reds supporters before the Champions League quarter-final against the striker’s Benfica in April 2022. Goals in each leg soon changed that, and saw him catch the eye of Jurgen Klopp as the Liverpool boss looked to add to an attack that would soon lose Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich.

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Nevertheless, eyebrows were raised when Liverpool thrashed out a deal shortly after the Champions League final loss to Real Madrid that could eventually see them pay a club record £85million for his services.

Scrutiny, then, was intense on Nunez from the moment he signed, not helped by an over-eagerness to impress that hampered a number of pre-season performances and led to him being mocked on social media before a competitive ball had been even kicked.

However, the hype reverted in the Community Shield when Nunez came off the bench to win a penalty and score as Manchester City’s own big-money signing Erling Haaland was temporarily overshadowed. Despite then scoring in the Premier League opener at Fulham the following weekend, it would prove a false dawn, a red card for a needless headbutt on the 24-year-old’s home debut against Crystal Palace then ruling him out for three games.

That hot-headed aberration has since been proven a one-off, Nunez avoiding any further such controversies. And while he became an increasingly regular starter leading the line before the World Cup and more often than not impacted games, a recurring theme saw him work himself into good openings before missing them.

It was intriguing, too, that the last two Premier League games before the Qatar tournament – where Nunez was eliminated with Uruguay at the group stage – saw him play on the left flank, assisting a Mohamed Salah strike at Tottenham Hotspur and scoring twice against Southampton.

After the arrival of Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven in the New Year, Nunez started only two more games as the centre forward, scoring in the FA Cup third round draw at home to Wolves and winning the penalty from which Salah netted the only goal in the Premier League win over Fulham last month.

While largely injury-free, there were niggles that saw him miss the notable defeats at Nottingham Forest and Brighton along with the drab draw at Crystal Palace, before sitting out the final three matches with a toe complaint. Indeed, Nunez started only three times in Liverpool’s 11-game unbeaten run that ended the campaign.

If it contributed to Nunez’s output decreasing in the second half of the season, it didn’t halt his reputation as a big-game player, netting at Newcastle United, at home to Real Madrid, away at Leeds United and twice in the record-breaking 7-0 win over Manchester United at Anfield. There was also an assist against Everton, too.

With 15 goals and four assists in 42 outings – 11 of his strikes coming in his 26 starts – it has hardly been a terrible season for Nunez, who has been steady rather than spectacular. Improving his command of the English language will help, as will a tendency to perform better after his debut season as was shown at Benfica.

“Obviously, I still have many things to work on, for example my finishing,” said Nunez earlier this year. “But I think the same thing is happening to me as happened to (fellow Uruguayan Luis) Suarez. In his second year, he tore it up.

“Something similar happened to me already at Benfica. The first year went very badly for me and in the second, I exploded. Here, I think the same thing is happening. I hope next season will be like that. I’ll put my best forward and hopefully I’ll get a bit of luck.”

The forward is right. Next season needs to be when the real Darwin Nunez stands up for Liverpool.

Season rating: 7/10.

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