Liverpool Pursue Darwin Núñez Reunion as Iraola Rebuilds
Anfield is being stripped back and rewired. Mohamed Salah has gone. Andy Robertson has gone. Ibrahima Konaté is seemingly heading for Real Madrid. A Liverpool side that once felt permanent now looks temporary, transitional, vulnerable.
Into that uncertainty steps Andoni Iraola, tasked with cleaning up the mess left by Arne Slot and stitching together a new version of the Reds on the fly. The holes in his squad are obvious, especially in attack. The solution being floated is anything but simple: bring Darwin Núñez home.
From record signing to free gamble
Núñez arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2022 as a statement signing under Jürgen Klopp, a big-money forward expected to spearhead the next era. He never quite became that player. His Liverpool spell is remembered less for ruthless finishing and more for chaos — goals, yes, but also misses that lived rent-free in opposition heads and home fans’ nerves.
Yet that “underwhelming” stint still ended with a Premier League title in his locker. The story did not close there, though. Núñez left for the Saudi Pro League, joining Al-Hilal at the start of the 2025/26 campaign, a move that looked like a lucrative reset at 26.
It never truly settled. He scored nine times in 24 appearances, including a final flourish in February with both goals in a 2-1 AFC Champions League Elite win over Al-Wahda. Then the axe fell. Cut from Al-Hilal’s squad because of foreign player limits, he saw his contract mutually terminated and his future flung back into Europe’s rumour mill.
Now, according to TEAMtalk, Núñez has been offered to a select group of clubs as a free agent. Liverpool are firmly in that conversation.
The same Darwin, the same chaos
Anyone expecting a transformed finisher from his time in Saudi Arabia will need to think again. The numbers are familiar, almost on brand. Núñez hit six league goals from a hefty 11.48 xG for Al-Hilal, a glaring reminder that his problem has never been getting into positions. It’s what happens next.
Liverpool fans know this version all too well. Under Klopp, Núñez racked up 11 league goals and an eye-watering 27 Big Chances Missed in the 2023/24 Premier League season. The year before, he posted nine league goals with 20 Big Chances Missed. He was an xG magnet, a whirlwind of movement and disruption who dragged defences all over the place but often left the scoreboard underfed.
That profile hasn’t changed. What has changed is the context.
Iraola’s dilemma – and opportunity
Iraola inherits a squad light on proven firepower. With Salah gone and the attack stripped of some of its old certainty, Liverpool need bodies, variety and risk at the top end of the pitch. They also need value. A free Núñez, at 26, ticks a lot of those boxes.
Reports suggest Benfica are ready to challenge for his signature, with the Portuguese side naturally tempted by the prospect of a reunion with the forward they once polished and sold for a premium. There are also whispers in Spain that Núñez has already given the green light to a return to Anfield, where he would arrive with no transfer fee attached.
For Liverpool, that changes the equation. Núñez as a £70m centrepiece felt like a burden. Núñez as a free signing, used smartly in a rotational role, looks very different. He doesn’t need to be the answer. He just needs to be a weapon.
Give Iraola an aggressive, vertical system, and Núñez’s movement suddenly becomes a feature, not a flaw. He stretches lines, runs channels, occupies centre-backs and manufactures chaos in the box. The finishing may still frustrate, but the chances will come. They always do with him.
A familiar face for a new era
This is what makes the idea so compelling. Liverpool are not chasing nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. They are staring at a stripped-back squad and a long season and asking where the volume of chances, the sheer attacking threat, will come from.
Núñez will miss. He will exasperate. He will also, almost inevitably, drag Liverpool into dangerous areas of the pitch again and again, even if the final touch still betrays him more often than it should.
For a club in the middle of a turbulent reset, the question isn’t whether Darwin Núñez is perfect. It’s whether a flawed, familiar forward on a free is exactly the kind of gamble a new Liverpool cannot afford to ignore.
