Darwin Nunes scored 34 goals in all of Benfica’s tournaments last season
Darwin Nunes could not have wished for a better audition for future boss Jurgen Klopp than scoring twice against Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old received a goal in every game, while Benfica collapsed to a 6-4 defeat, bringing the score to six in 10 games last season and helping to persuade the Premier League team to agree on what could become a club. a record deal of £ 85 million for the Uruguayan national team, exceeding the £ 75 million paid for Virgil van Dyke in 2018.
As Sadio Mane seems ready to move on, Klopp will continue the evolution of his front line with a player coveted by some of the continent’s biggest clubs, even though he has just finished his second season in the top league in Europe. .
Compatriot Luis Suarez has been drumming for the youngster since joining Spain’s Almeria for the first time three years ago, but Barcelona’s financial constraints meant they failed to take advantage of the veteran striker’s recommendation.
“I have 15 years of international experience, so I know a thing or two about the attackers,” Suarez recalled. “And I told them, ‘pay attention to this one, he’s very good, he has a lot of interesting things.’
Instead, this is another former Suarez club that seems to be taking advantage of another emerging South American talent who is honing his craft in Portugal, with the Reds also signing Luis Diaz of Porto in January.
The evolution of Darwin
Nunes scores 3-3 at Anfield in the return leg of the Champions League quarter-finals
When Nunes joined Benfica in September 2020, after scoring 16 times in one season in Spain, it was the club’s record 24 million euros (20 million British pounds), but in an initial campaign affected by Covid and injuries, he stuttered, not startled, and registered only six goals in the league, albeit with 10 assists in the division.
“It simply came to our notice then. I said I thought it was going to be the biggest failure in Benfica’s history because it cost so much money and what we saw in the beginning was a little scary, “said Philippe Ingles of the Benfica FM podcast.
“I even said I would buy him a shirt if he scored 30 goals a season, because I never thought he would be able to do something like that, but he has improved so much in those two seasons.”
Ingles was happy to eat his words – and gave up for the Darwin 9 shirt as the young striker repaid Benfica’s faith with 34 goals in all competitions last season, 26 of them in 28 league games.
“He is very advanced. Physically he became a monster; he is so physical and fast, and another thing that has improved a lot is confidence, “Ingles continued.
“He was the type of attacker who sometimes lacked the confidence to score; he was always trying to pass the ball to another player and that’s something we all saw in the first season that he had this problem. During this second season, he became much more confident. , he started scoring goals. “
Former Benfica boss Jorge Jesus called it when the club made a record purchase of Nunes two years ago, predicting that it would soon cost much more.
“All this ability to make decisions, complete and be quick,” Jesus said. “It was Benfica’s most expensive purchase and when there is no pandemic, it will be the most expensive sale.
A direct replacement for Mane?
Nunes’ impressive result and impressive stature give him the image of traditional number nine, and of his 48 goals in 85 games for Benfica, 92% came from the penalty area.
But the striker’s fierce speed has pushed him wide to the left for both the club and the country, with former Almeria boss Jose Gomez telling Portugal’s Record that the player will be perfect for Liverpool’s Klopp system.
“Klopp likes to play, looking for places in the back of the opponent’s defensive lines,” he said. “Which means we can say that Darwin will feel like a fish in water because speed and fast attack are characteristics he prefers.”
As Manet is ready to leave, Takumi Minamino is for sale and Divok Origi has already left, Nunes will fill in the options for Klopp’s attack and the loss of the Senegalese striker will have to deal with it as a matter of urgency.
Nunes contributed a combined 36 goals and assists in the Championship and Champions League last season to Manet’s 23 – and nine games less – scoring an average of 81 minutes and proving himself more clinically than the outgoing 30-year-old. impact rate from 31.4% to 17.6%.
Not surprisingly, the Uruguayan had more touches in the opponent’s field in 90 minutes – 8.4 against Manet’s 6.7 – and he also performed more dribbles (1.8 to 1.6), although Manet created more positions, with 1.5 per game against 1.2 at Nunes.
“I don’t know if he feels ready to come and take the Premier League by storm,” Ingles added.
“He’s a little shy and I don’t know if he speaks English or has that confidence; he can do the same – pass instead of shoot – especially when he looks away and has Mohamed Salah or Roberto Firmino.
“But if the club gives him confidence and time to develop, he has the potential to be a great striker in the Premier League.”
From Penarol to the Premier League
Nunes won 11 games for Uruguay, scoring two goals
It was a quick rise for Nunes, and he turns out to be leading a life that would be completely unrecognizable to the boy who saw his older brother Junior as his hero.
“Jr. was the man who taught Darwin how to play football and was his motivation to play in academia when he was young,” Uruguayan journalist Taimur Yamani told BBC Sport.
“He comes from a very poor family, where they regularly lacked food, with his mother selling bottles of milk and his father a builder. His parents made many sacrifices just to feed the family.”
Former Uruguayan national Jose Perdomo was the scout discovered by Nunes, and after taking Junior to Penarol a few years earlier, he eventually persuaded the boys’ mother to let her younger brother and sister leave Artigas for the capital, Montevideo.
“After impressing in La Luz and San Miguel, in 2013 Perdomo, Penarol’s legend and scout, went to his house and told them he wanted Darwin to move in with them in Montevideo. So at the age of 14, he left his family in Artigas to make the big move, “Yamani explained.
“He broke his anterior cruciate ligament at just 17 and fought so badly that he almost left football while trying to regain his knee. At this point, his brother Junior had to leave football to help his parents get money for food.
“When Darwin saw the sacrifices his brother and his family were making, he decided to stay and get on the first team so he could give his family the financial help they needed.”
Nunes had to overcome further setbacks, taking more than a year after his debut to score his first goal in October 2018 after additional knee surgery before winning his move to Europe.
“When he was in full form, nothing stopped him and he was one of the best players in Uruguay in 2019,” added Yamani. “When Nunes signed with Almeria, he became known in Uruguay as the new Edinson Cavani.”
And Perdomo believes he has endless potential for the kid he first hired a decade ago.
“What really excites me about Darwin is that I think he still has a lot to develop, he doesn’t have a ceiling,” he told BBC Sport in November. “He is Uruguay’s future number nine.”
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