Klopp offers Nunez excuse as striker faces brutal 'KARMA' claim

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 15 May 2023 11:27 BST
• 4 min read

Jurgen Klopp has launched a fresh defence of summer signing Darwin Nunez, who joined the club last summer from Benfica.

Nunez arrived for €80 million and had been expected to become the club’s main goal threat this season after netting 34 goals for the Portuguese side last season.

The 23-year-old, though, has failed to replicate those numbers in a complicated first season at Anfield. In 29 Premier League games, he has only scored nine goals, with 15 strikes coming overall.

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Nunez has become increasingly peripheral to Klopp’s plans. Over the last three months, he has typically been used in his preferred position as centre forward as a substitute, with his starts more regularly coming off the left wing.

This has led to questions over what Klopp thinks of a player who could cost his side up to €100m if all the bonus conditions in his transfer are met.

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And the Liverpool boss continues to offer reasons for Nunez’s underwhelming start to life in the Premier League, claiming the forward had time to settle in Portugal.

“He scored 15 goals. It's a reasonable record. He had time to adapt at Benfica and the language was not as much an issue as it is here in England. I know he can help us even more in the future,” Klopp said ahead of Monday’s Premier League fixture with Leicester – a fixture the Reds are obliged to win if they are to keep their hopes of reaching the Champions League alive.

Darwin’s ex-agent in ‘karma’ claim

Meanwhile, Darwin Nunez’s ex-agent Edgardo Lasalvia says the striker’s performance this season is ‘karma’ for treating him so poorly.

Speaking to El Observador, he revealed the split came as a shock: “I had no chance to talk to Darwin. I found out when he came with six bodyguards and did not want to speak at the airport.

“I had sent a boy from the company to look for him. There I tried to call him and, on a message from WhatsApp, he told me that he loved me very much, that he would always be my friend, blah blah blah but that he was going to start a new path with another company - and blocked me.

“Everyone chooses how they want to live life, but there is karma, and everything comes back.

“He didn’t go with Jorge Mendes, he left with another agent, the same as [Nicolas] Otamendi. When he was in Benfica they did a little job like an ant, they started to eat his head. I got angry when I lost Darwin. It broke me in half because I adore the kid, but I understood that it’s business.”

Nunez’s current Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) is €37.5m – less than half the price they paid to Benfica for him.