FORWARD PLANNING
Luring supreme goalscorer Nunez from Benfica to Anfield could be final piece of the jigsaw for Klopp
AS the title race heated up last season, Jurgen Klopp kept returning to one word - fluidity.
Every time he spoke of his attack, he used it. It is a word which defines his attacking philosophy and also explains Liverpool’s determined pursuit of Darwin Nunez.
Klopp does not want his forwards, or any player who ventures forward, to play positions – he wants them to create havoc in the box by interchanging almost at will.
That is why Nunez has become his No.1 summer target.
The Benfica star can operate as a traditional
No.9, if there is such a thing in modern football at the highest level, and given he is regarded as a replacement for Sadio Mane, that is significant.
The Senegal forward has been playing largely through the middle since the arrival of Luis Diaz (below) in January, with Liverpool having a forward line of three players – Mo Salah included – who can operate anywhere in the penalty area.
Klopp stated recently he does not care about labels: “I don’t think about us having a ‘false nine’, no nine, or a number nine. All the players are responsible for being anywhere in the box. It doesn’t matter where, it is all about being fluid”. With Nunez, Liverpool would have that fluidity, but with an extra ingredient – a more clinical goalscoring talent.
He can play on the left, can track back, can drop into the false nine and create, but what he can do without question, is find the net – as 34 goals for Benfica last season shows.
And perhaps that is why Klopp is hoping essentially to exchange Mane for Nunez and very little money, net. A 30-year-old wide player with a good scoring record, replaced by a 22-year-old with a better one.
Mane’s shot conversion rate last term hovered just below 24 percent. Nunez - admittedly in an inferior league was above 31 per cent. His movement maps are similar when operating to the left or middle of the box, so are his defensive maps. What it would give Klopp is a forward line that is so fluid six players can interchange, both in terms of starting line, and positions on the pitch, with Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota and new signing Fabio Carvalho all equally flexible.
If there was one failing last campaign as Liverpool chased a historic Quadruple, it was their finishing in the big matches, with the Champions League the biggest example of all. They should have beaten Real Madrid having had a recordbreaking number of shots in the final. With Salah off form, they could not find a goal.
Like Manchester City with Erling Haaland, Klopp is perhaps thinking he needs a final piece of the jigsaw, that goalscorer to win the tightest of games. But unlike Haaland, Nuñez will not disrupt his system.
And with 25-year-old Diaz still acclimatising to life at Anfield, Jota only 25, Nuñez 22 and Carvalho 19, the prospect of the Reds boss developing all four as he did with Salah, Mane (left) and Firmino is frightening.