Liverpool: ‘Klopp-driven’ signing came with ‘data warning’ as ‘burnt out’ ex-Red reveals ‘arguments’

It’s been claimed Liverpool had serious doubts about Uruguay international Darwin Nunez as his £64m arrival was ‘largely driven’ by Jurgen Klopp.

The Premier League giants paid an initial fee of around £64m to sign Nunez from Benfica during the 2022 summer transfer window. This deal came about after he scored 34 goals in his 41 appearances across all competitions during the 2021/22 campaign.

Nunez has 33 goals in his 96 appearances for Liverpool as his performances over the past couple of seasons have been heavily criticised.

The 25-year-old is still pretty raw and he’s often erratic in front of goal. He was an unused substitute on Saturday as Liverpool beat newly-promoted Ipswich Town 2-0.

There have been significant changes at Liverpool this year. Arne Slot has replaced Klopp, while Michael Edwards has returned to the club as FSG’s CEO of Football. This is while Richard Hughes has become their technical director.

Ian Graham – who spent 11 years with Liverpool as their director of research – has lifted the lid on how Nunez’s move to the Premier League club came about in a detailed interview with The Athletic.

The report claims ‘the signing of Nunez was largely driven by Klopp’. When asked whether the club ‘moved away from their data-led model’ as the manager’s ‘power and influence increased’, Graham revealed this transfer came with a ‘data warning’.

“Nunez played brilliantly against Liverpool and that has an effect on people,” Graham said in an interview with The Athletic. “It didn’t do him any harm in becoming a Liverpool player.”

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“The difficulty with Nunez was that he was a very different type of player to 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.”

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While Edwards initially left Liverpool during the 2022 summer transfer window, Graham departed last year.

Graham was also asked whether Klopp had become more difficult to work with and he revealed Liverpool chiefs had “passionate arguments”.

“I can’t speak for Michael or Julian, but I was overdue a change,” Graham added. “I’m not going to pretend that everything was always harmony and light at Liverpool. We had arguments, of course there were big egos and I include myself in that.

“It’s difficult to keep the momentum going for 11 years when you’re having passionate arguments. Sooner or later you get burnt out. We all want the club to succeed but we have got different ideas.

“I thought I could continue longer than Michael, but after nine months or so I thought, ‘I can see now what Michael was saying when he said it was time for a rest’. It was always great fun working with Michael — demanding but entertaining.

“After 11 years in my dream job, I’d achieved what I wanted to achieve, having a tangible impact on the success of one of the biggest clubs in the world. We were the first in-house data department in the Premier League and I built it up from just me to a department of eight really good people. It was the right thing to pass the baton on and give others some career progression.”