Liverpool transfer expert warned Reds about Darwin Nunez before £85m deal

Liverpool transfer expert Ian Graham warned the Reds about signing Darwin Nunez after explaining that the team would be forced to change their style of play to accommodate the striker. Liverpool completed the signing of the Uruguay international in June 2022 after agreeing a deal rising to £85million to prise him away from Benfica.

Nunez has been in and out of the Liverpool team since moving to the north west, bagging 33 goals and 17 assists in 96 appearances for the club.

But he has been guilty of wasting a hatful of chances in front of goal and has failed to match the output of blockbuster star Mohamed Salah.

Graham worked as Liverpool’s first director of research and was instrumental in bringing Salah to the club under former manager Jurgen Klopp after helping to initiate a data-driven transfer model on Merseyside.

The Welshman left Liverpool in 2023 and has released a new book called How to Win the Premier League: The Inside Story of Football’s Data Revolution.

And during an interview with The Athletic, Graham explained why he questioned the decision to pursue Nunez’s signature.

“Nunez played brilliantly against Liverpool [in the Champions League] and that has an effect on people,” Graham said. “It didn’t do him any harm in becoming a Liverpool player.

“The difficulty with Nunez was that he was a very different type of player to [Roberto] Firmino. My questions were: ‘Are we going to change our style or formation for him? Is he a good enough player that it might be worth making those changes?’ It was something we had resisted for many years.

“We went through the same data process for Nunez as with other players. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew what a big change it would be with Nunez. It was more, ‘Are we sure we’re going to make the best use of him?’

“I talk in the book about classifying players to understand what their role is. It’s different to whether they are any good or not. We always had a list of ‘great players but not for Liverpool’. Defensive full-backs, target men, crossing wingers – we just didn’t play in that style. It was clear that Nunez was a No. 9.

“I wouldn’t say that the data said no to Nunez. It’s more ‘If we sign this player we have to understand this is the role we’ve seen him be effective in and is there currently a slot for him in our squad?’

“And if you’re spending a large amount of money on a player then he has to start. The worst thing you can do is buy a squad player and spend money that could be out there on the pitch.”