Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s career has been defined by extremes. Beginnings in his homeland and an eye-catching spell at Almeria, where he scored 16 goals, led to a move to Benfica. Forty-eight strikes across two seasons in Portugal convinced Liverpool to pay an \u00a385 million fee, including add-ons (\u00a3105 million at the time in dollar terms).<\/p>\n
His arrival in April 2022 followed goals in both legs against Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-final, moments that helped persuade J\u00fcrgen Klopp to press for the signing. Early signs at Anfield were promising: a goal in the Community Shield against Manchester City and a goal and an assist on his first Premier League outing raised expectations.<\/p>\n
But inconsistency arrived quickly. An impetuous headbutt against Crystal Palace on his first competitive Anfield appearance earned a straight red card. A debut season of 15 goals was often overshadowed by glaring misses. A better second campaign produced 18 goals and 13 assists in all competitions, yet opinion remained divided.<\/p>\n
Language difficulties and questions over his ball-striking technique were noted factors in his adaptation. Power was often prioritised over finesse. Those recurring concerns, combined with a tame seven-goal return in his final season and the arrival of a different tactical approach under Arne Slot, ultimately cost him his place at Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Liverpool recouped \u00a346 million when N\u00fa\u00f1ez moved to Al Hilal. Expectations of a revival in the Saudi Pro League have not been met. He managed seven strikes in 23 appearances across all competitions in his first half-season in the Middle East. Al Hilal have been unbeaten and lead the standings, but N\u00fa\u00f1ez has been removed from the club\u2019s squad list for league matches for the remainder of the campaign.<\/p>\n
The arrival of Karim Benzema from Al Ittihad has displaced N\u00fa\u00f1ez. To accommodate Benzema within Saudi Pro League registration rules regarding foreign players, N\u00fa\u00f1ez was removed and can play just five more league games this term, though he remains eligible to feature in the AFC Champions League. With limited immediate options, a move looks more likely in the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From an \u00a385m Liverpool move to exclusion at Al Hilal, N\u00fa\u00f1ez’s career has been unsettled. In decline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1410,175,1163],"tags":[1081,1304],"class_list":["post-6882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-al-hilal","category-liverpool","category-transfers","tag-adaptation","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}