Liverpool Pursue Darwin Núñez Reunion Amid Rebuild

Anfield is not easing itself into this new era. It is being ripped into it.

Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson have already walked away as club greats, Ibrahima Konaté looks bound for Real Madrid, and Andoni Iraola has arrived to find a squad pockmarked with gaps and compromise. This is a summer of hard choices on Merseyside.

One of them might be surprisingly familiar.

Núñez back on the market

Darwin Núñez, the raw, restless forward Jurgen Klopp pushed so hard for in 2022, is back where he often seems to live: at a crossroads.

TEAMtalk report that the Uruguay international has been offered to a select group of clubs as a free agent, with Liverpool among those seriously in the conversation. No fee. No amortisation puzzles. Just wages, trust and the question every sporting director must ask themselves with Núñez: is the chaos worth the cost?

Since leaving Anfield, Núñez has taken the well-trodden road to the Saudi Pro League, joining Al-Hilal at the start of the 2025/26 campaign. The numbers tell a familiar story. Nine goals in 24 appearances, flashes of menace, and then the trapdoor.

Caught by the league’s strict foreign player limits, he was cut from the squad despite ending on a high. His final appearance for Al-Hilal came back in February, when he scored twice in a 2-1 AFC Champions League Elite win over Al-Wahda. Soon after, his contract was mutually terminated.

Now 26, Núñez is weighing his next move. Benfica, the club that launched him into the elite market, are expected to push for a reunion of their own. There are also whispers in Spain that the striker has already given the green light to a Liverpool return, arriving as a free agent if the deal is rubber-stamped.

The same old Darwin?

Liverpool fans will not need to squint to picture how this might look. Núñez’s finishing, the great “what if” of his Premier League spell, did not suddenly sharpen in Saudi Arabia. He scored six league goals there from a hefty 11.48 expected goals, a gap that will sound painfully familiar at Anfield.

Under Klopp, the pattern was just as stark. In 2023/24 he hit 11 Premier League goals but missed 27 big chances. The season before, his debut campaign, he finished with nine league goals and 20 big chances missed. He dragged defences all over the pitch, bent backlines with his runs, and still left supporters with their heads in their hands as often as their arms in the air.

That is the paradox Iraola must weigh. Núñez is an xG magnet, a forward who simply drags the ball and the game into dangerous areas by sheer force of movement. Even on an off-day, he generates chaos. Chaos often leads to chances. Chances, over time, usually lead to goals – even if the journey is exasperating.

Iraola’s dilemma

For Iraola, the context is brutal. He walks into a Liverpool stripped not only of Salah’s goals and Robertson’s drive, but now likely of Konaté’s presence at the back. The squad is thinner than a club of this stature can tolerate. Attacking depth, in particular, is a glaring concern.

In that light, a free shot at Núñez looks different. This would not be the marquee, system-defining signing Klopp once imagined. It would be a pragmatic play: a rotational forward who knows the league, knows the club, and can stretch games from the bench or cover during injury spells.

There is risk, of course. The scrutiny at Anfield never eased during his first spell; it would be even harsher the second time around. A homecoming only works if the player embraces the scars of the past rather than runs from them.

But Liverpool are in a summer where sentiment must bow to utility. Núñez, for all his flaws, offers something this new-look squad badly needs: volume of chances, vertical threat, and a forward who can turn a stale match into a storm.

If Iraola believes he can live with the misses, he might just find that the chaos is exactly what this rebuilt Liverpool side requires.