Darwin Nunez next: Where will he rank among Liverpool No.9s since Robbie Fowler?
It’s all change at Anfield this summer, with several long-serving players already departed and Jordan Henderson and Fabinho soon to join them.
Other players have simply changed their squad numbers, most notably Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, who have taken two of the most fabled in the club’s history: 7 and 9.
After signing for a fee which could rise to a club record £85million, Nunez had an interesting debut season to say the least. From missing gilt-edged chances and headbutting defenders to sublime finishes and incredible work rate, the Uruguayan striker was never far from the action. He was an agent of chaos. Capable of anything, everything and nothing.
A record of 15 goals and 4 assists from 42 appearances was a respectable return for his first year in England but the presence of Erling Haaland at Manchester City led to unfair comparisons, some of which saw him cruelly labelled the South American Andy Carroll.
With a season to settle, a full and productive pre-season with his teammates and a new squad number to boot, a lot will be expected of Nunez this season.
It is that Liverpool No. 9 shirt we are looking at today.
At the dawn of the squad number era in the 1993/94 season, Ian Rush was the occupant of the shirt, as he had been for much of his Anfield career, before young pretender Robbie Fowler inherited it following the record goalscorer’s exit in the summer of 1996.
Fowler’s impact was such that he was nicknamed ‘God’ by his fellow Liverpudlians, and he became another iconic holder of the famous shirt, helping the club back into the Champions League and to a cup treble in 2000/2001.
Since his first departure from the club early into the following season, the 9 shirt has been worn by 10 players in the years since, not including that man Nunez.
It’s been a case of the very good, the very bad and a few very much stuck in between.
Where will Nunez rank when all is said and done?
10) Andy Carroll
The first in the very bad category, Carroll ranks lowest due to the hype surrounding his transfer, the £35m fee involved – which was both a record for the club and for a British player – and because he was sh*t.
The ponytailed Geordie had been heralded as the second coming of Alan Shearer by some but the goals soon dried up at Anfield, with just 11 in 58 appearances, albeit one was a last-gasp winner against Everton in the 2012 FA Cup semi-final.
A replacement for Fernandes Torres he was not and he was quickly moved to West Ham upon Brendan Rodgers’ arrival at the club.
To be fair to Carroll, he never wanted to join Liverpool in the first place.
9) El-Hadji Diouf
Signed by Gerard Houllier for £10m instead of one of the few top players on this list (more on that later) after his performances at the 2002 World Cup for Senegal, Diouf got off to a flier at Anfield, scoring twice on his home debut.
That was as good as it got for the controversial forward, who ended his debut campaign in disgrace having spat at a Celtic fan during a UEFA Cup game.
Failing to score a single goal in his second campaign at the club, Diouf’s paltry record at the club ended with six goals in 79 appearances, leading to Jamie Carragher sticking the boot in by saying that “he was always the last one to get picked in training”.
8) Christian Benteke
Another big-money dud but circumstances definitely worked against him.
In Brendan Rodgers’ final transfer window in charge, the Belgian was bought for £32.5m from Aston Villa in a bid to recapture some of the goals and magic lost following the departure of Luis Suarez a year before.
Prolific with Villa, Benteke’s luck ran out when Rodgers was sacked in October 2015 and replaced with Jurgen Klopp, whose style of play clashed with that of the big no.9.
He was one of the first casualties of the revolution, ending his sole season at Anfield with 10 goals in 42 appearances with only 14 league starts to his name. At least the club broke even on him, which is more than can be said for others on this list.
7) Iago Aspas
One goal in 15 appearances, and owner of arguably the single worst corner in Premier League history, the only reason Aspas finds himself in seventh spot is that he didn’t arrive to much fanfare or expectation.
Even so, he was a spectacular failure and serves as a reminder of the brilliance of Suarez in 2013/14 that he came two games away from winning a Premier League title.
6) Rickie Lambert
The latest Southampton icon to have gone off the deep end, Lambert was last seen outlining the importance of talking positively to glasses of water.
Apparently Rickie Lambert thinks you can talk water clean pic.twitter.com/RlQWhW6qur
— Average Striker (@AverageStriker) July 15, 2023
It’s a shame his short Liverpool career was less positive as the homecoming lasted only the 2014/15 season, producing 36 appearances and three goals.
Alongside Mario Balotelli and Lazar Markovic, he was supposed to help replace Suarez. He did not.
5) Robbie Fowler
Wait what? The second coming of God?
When Fowler shockingly re-joined Liverpool in January 2006 he first wore the 11 shirt. In his sole full season back at Anfield, he took back the shirt in which he had become famous.
Acting largely as a back-up, Fowler did still net 12 goals in 39 appearances, taking his total to 183 in the red shirt.
His return also gave his adoring fans the chance to say goodbye to a true icon and a favourite son.
4) Nicolas Anelka
Anelka was absurdly the player Houllier decided against in favour of Diouf and it could be said that call marked the beginning of the end for the Frenchman at Anfield.
The former Arsenal man was the first to wear the 9 shirt after Fowler’s departure, joining on loan from PSG in late 2001 and being added to a then-all-star cast of Michael Owen, Emile Heskey and Jari Litmanen.
Five goals from 22 games might not jump off the paper but he was often deployed as a winger and became a quick favourite amongst the fanbase.
It remains one of the great mysteries that a Premier League winner and top scorer was then summarily discarded, but Houllier’s loss was Manchester City’s gain.
3) Djibril Cisse
Another Frenchman and one who was oft-compared to Anelka, as well as fellow fleet-footed icon, Thierry Henry.
Cissé arrived from Auxerre in the summer of 2004 with a huge reputation and quickly made an impact, scoring on his and Rafael Benitez’s Premier League debut. His signing also led to the exit of Michael Owen, such was the belief in him.
A terrible leg break occurred just months later, which almost ended Cissé’s career, but amazingly he made a return in time for the Champions League success in Istanbul, in which he scored in the shoot-out. He also netted in the 2006 FA Cup final win.
24 goals in 82 appearances. Two trophies. Not the worst but it was meant to be so much more.
2) Fernando Torres
While Torres’ Liverpool career saw no trophies, it was undoubtedly the prime of his career.
Joining from Atletico Madrid for a then-club record £26.5m fee, the Spaniard instantly lived up to his star billing, scoring on his home debut and going onto become the first player since Fowler in 1995/96 to hit 20 league goals in a season for the Reds.
Hat-tricks in successive home games, back-to-back PFA Team of the Year selections and third place in the 2008 Ballon d’Or, his dovetailing with Steven Gerrard was a joy to watch.
Injuries slowed him down after his first season but 81 goals in 142 appearances was still an exceptional return.
His injuries and subsequent exit coincided with Liverpool’s decline but no other club would experience El Nino’s brilliance to the same level.
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1) Roberto Firmino
A completely different type of 9 to Torres or anyone else on this list, Bobby Firmino was the quintessential ‘False 9’ and a player who made everyone around him better.
Joining from Hoffenheim in the summer of 2015, Jurgen Klopp’s arrival on Merseyside in October of the same year would kickstart his Liverpool career, becoming key to everything the German built at the club.
111 goals and 79 assists came in 362 appearances, many of which contributed to Liverpool’s clean sweep of available trophies from 2018 to 2022.
His technical quality and in-game intelligence made him the perfect focal point to one of the Premier League’s greatest front threes alongside Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.
He signed off his Liverpool career with a goal in his final home game and his departure marks the end of an era at the club.
While Torres might have been a better individual player, there is little doubt Firmino is the best to wear the No.9 shirt since Fowler all those years ago.
It’s now on Nunez to assume the mantle. With a great number comes great responsibility.
