Jurgen Klopp's biggest mistake

The signing of Darwin Núñez is Jürgen Klopp's biggest miscalculation.

The most striking stain in the splendid history of strategic decisions of the Liverpool coach since he was hired in October 2015. The leaders of the English club admit it after evaluating it with the technicians: pay 100 million euros for the striker, the most expensive footballer of history at Anfield, it was nonsense considering the cognitive abilities he demonstrates in training and in games.

Darwin's substitution on the first day of the Champions League, in Naples, where on occasions Liverpool suffered the most overwhelming defeat of the last five years (4-1) is the most ominous manifestation of the greatest crisis that the German coach has faced since he arrived to England.

"We had obvious problems," Klopp said in the Diego Maradona stadium conference room.

Skinny under the black cap, his cheeks drawn, his eyes alert in the depths of his bony sockets, the technician could not hide that he was going through a time of stress.

Despite the evidence of the collapse, he only made use of Núñez after the hour of the match, with the 4-1 petrified on the scoreboard.

Conditioned by a fundamental Liverpool rule that recommended not spending more than 50 million euros for a player unless it was absolutely extraordinary, until this summer Klopp's transfer list was an example of success for sports directors throughout Europe.

The incorporations of Firmino, Salah, Mané, Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz for 40 million euros each exhibited the precise regularity of the model.

There were only two exceptions: the acquisition of Van Dijk for 80 million and the signing of Alisson for 60. The center-back became an absolute world reference.

The goalkeeper was a wall.

They represented effective economic management in the hiring of footballers capable of performing at the highest level for the lowest possible price.

Together they reached three Champions League finals and won one.

If a prodigy does not remedy it,

There are signings in which Klopp just gives the go-ahead.

Regarding Núñez, the coach went a step further.

Not only did he break the basic rule of not paying more than 50 million.

He endorsed the double payment while outright ruling out more affordable or proven alternatives, such as Richarlison, Heung-min Son, or Lewandowski, offered by his agent Pini Zahavi.

Following his directive, in June Liverpool bought the rights from Benfica with the double mission of filling the void left in attack by Sadio Mané and playing in the forward position that had regularly corresponded to Firmino.

gigantic company.

In particular, the succession of Mané, organizational and emotional pillar of the team for six years.

The coach warned that the Uruguayan had the resources to achieve it: he pointed out his 23-year-old energy, his seasoned character,

The disappointment came in the preseason.

Ten days of training were enough for the technical secretariat to sound the alarm: “We have to get Firmino back”.

They say in Liverpool that when Klopp subjected the newcomer to the battery of exercises that measure mental speed to respond to situations of maximum difficulty in confined spaces, it was revealed that the striker made too many wrong decisions and that under pressure his controls were a lottery.

Since then, Klopp has worked hard to train him with patience and, in the meantime, use him as an opportunist to fight centers or use him as a revulsive in broken matches, where he can find spaces to easily put himself in unbalanced situations.

On the first day of the Premier, against Fulham, he left him on the bench.

“Benfica is not Liverpool”

Liverpool's American owners were stunned when Klopp flatly ruled out the player he was determined to sign for a record fee after seeing him play in the Champions League.

Many club employees, soccer experts, had warned Klopp that he was risking a lot.

But the German, genuinely excited by the scorer, preferred to be guided by the illusion of the purchase.

“At Benfica, Darwin was a striker, period”, explains the analyst of a Premier League team;

“In the Portuguese league there are shortcomings, and there are some spaces that never appear in a competitive league.

Jardel scored dozens of goals for Porto.

But Jardel was not signed by the big clubs because in Portugal the defenses grant spaces that in England or Spain are much narrower”.

“Benfica lives the Champions League as a medium-small team, in scenarios that the big teams in Europe only find in 10% of the matches”, explains the same analyst.

“Hapoel plays Benfica face-to-face in Lisbon.

And so all rivals.

With counterattack spaces, Darwin played with courage, with tenacity, with claw, with impulses, and he stood out thanks to the counterattack situations that gave him spaces.

He made goals with the cane.

He was fashionable.

But the scenarios that Núñez took advantage of at Benfica were not going to appear in a big team whose rivals are more closed to him”.

Klopp again postponed Núñez in Naples in favor of Firmino, whom he entrusted to go down to the midfield to lend a hand, something that the Uruguayan is not qualified to do.

Injuries to Henderson and Thiago Silva, and evidence that Van Dijk has never been the same since he broke his knee in 2019, aggravated the prospects on the way to his Champions League debut.

To replace the gap in the midfield area, Klopp selected the veteran Millner and the young Harvey Elliott, a midfielder who likes to filter passes, but who, according to club sources, never showed great organizing qualities in a model that requires the two interiors to execute Multitask continuously and reactively.

“Andy Carroll Face”

“We were never compact,” Klopp said, “for 60 minutes we lost a lot of balls and we weren't able to press after loss.

We never stretched the pressure to its last line because our midfield didn't connect.

Since I lead the team I have never seen it so compact”.

The entrance of Núñez in the Diego Maradona added agitation in the cocktail shaker.

But Liverpool did not discover a single light in the darkness that surrounded him.

In 15 minutes he lost seven balls.

The soccer market has swollen like the fruit market in the last decade.

In 2011, Liverpool broke their record when they signed Andy Carroll for €40m.

It was a historic failure.

For several seasons, the club paid the slender English striker's salary while loaning him out to hospitable clubs.

The latest joke in Kirkby, the red sports city, circulates like wildfire: “Darwin Núñez is getting the face of Andy Carroll”.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber