What was the reason they didn’t for the last 5 seasons before that?
We were absolutely interested and tried to get him, we just couldnt offer him what Dortmund did in terms of first team opportunities. That is not an issue of under rating him, it’s a reflection that he simply wasnt ready, even as good as he was then, to perform at the level that we needed for first team players at that time. Certainly not on the level that Thiago could and did perform at. He chose to continue to play first team football somewhere he was going to be able to get that immediately. That is the reality of the challenge we have in buying good young talent. For every Elliott we do land, there are lots who will take a path that involves stepping stone.
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Yup. We’ve very few duds in comparison to others and I think that’s testament to the work done behind the scenes that we’ll only have the tiniest of insight into what goes into it all.
The way I see it is there appears to be a degree of game time required for them to feel confident in making a judgement. I’m sure I read recently that it’s something like 150 or 175 games they want to see the player involved with. For the bigger money, straight into the first team type moves that makes sense. But by 150 games into a career, that player isn’t really going under many radars.
Where we do then perhaps compromise on that body of evidence is when the deal can be done below market value and we have the willingness to take the risk, the money isn’t required for other transfers and we’re not expecting or necessarily hoping for immediate and significant impact. Minamino, Carvalho, Elliott, Van den Berg, Bajcetic for example. They don’t necessarily have the games under their belt but the risk is worth taking because the price and conditions mean the immediate reward doesn’t need to be huge or we’ve a longer term view on it.
It would explain why we wouldn’t have gone after Bellingham when he left Birmingham and why the likes of Thuram and Kone are on our shopping list for this summer but someone like Alex Scott at Bristol City perhaps isn’t. Not enough to football to confidently judge him on for the fee they’ll be asking. Someone will take that risk though, could be the next Bellingham, could be the next Anthony Gordon.
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In other words, not spending enough to add better quality and strengthen the squad. 
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Klopp was happy with the squad , that’s why we didn’t add to it.
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Sorry, but can you stop staying ‘par example’. it’s “par exemple” or it’s “for example”.
Sorry for being petty but it drives me mad. I would’ve thought the other grammar police would’ve been all over that. Pardon moi. I mean excusez-me. I mean sorry.
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It is a shame because against the Dutch the other day he was brilliant
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2 other things driving me mad.
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Darwin didn’t cost €85 million not yet anyway. 15 goals in the equivalent of 22 games (stat I saw) is a good solid start. As a comparision, Suarez in his first full season scored 17 in 39 appeareances.
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We were all over Jude Bellingham. He wanted 1st team football. That’s why he chose Dortmund a team happy to be perrenial runners up but that will guarantee 1st team football to 17 and 18 year olds.
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I think with Darwin it may be borne out of some concern that he may be good but just not suited to our play.
The greatest concern with Nunez is the conversion rate 9 league from 93 shots at goal isnt great especially if you add the statistics of big chances missed which he topped across the big European leagues till the last month of the season where he hardly played.
Yeah but probably similar to Suarez in that regard. I seem to remember him missing loads of ‘sitters’ in his 1st and 2nd season.
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Suarez took a bit of time to get his serious numbers going (that side between 2010 and 2012 wasn’t creative/didn’t score enough), but he was an automatic starter from almost the moment he arrived. Quickly became one of our key players and it was evident what he will become. Even playing with bloody Andy Carroll up top for a while. Of course, this Liverpool side is also better than the one Suarez had when he joined. I’m not yet that convinced by Nunez thinking of the future, that he will surely be a protagonist player here. But I’m also not rushing and patiently waiting to see what he does next season.
I was made up when we bought Suarez. Didn’t know anything about him until I saw him in the World cup. Different gravy. I liked him even more after the sending off and celebration at the missed penalty.
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Suarez was an automatic starter when he was competing with David N’Gog and Andy Carroll. There were lots of concerns at the time that he would never be a regular goalscorer and most thought his best position was in behind a striker.
Nunez was competing with Gakpo, Diaz and Firmino. It’s a bit different.
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He would’ve probably played with Torres up top, had Fernando stayed a bit longer. I was looking forward to that duo up top for 6 months. Only lasted a few days. Back then, he was perfectly fine being a second striker. It’s his quality and rising in numbers that pushed him being our main man in attack and basically our key player. The irony for Nunez is that his main competitor for the central role might be the guy we bought 6 months later and changed his position. We’ll see how it all evolves. Gakpo himself is not a certainity. Only Salah is in attack. Nunez will get next season no doubt. Will he get 3+ years whatever happens, nah. Like I said, Nunez came to a better side than Suarez at the time. But Suarez was more overall more convincing than Nunez, even in the early stages.
Yeah, Suarez was chaos that made him impossible to play against from day 1, but for 18 months was similarly chaotic with his finishing. As @Sweeting says, when Sturridge came in the prevailing wisdom was it was a good move because he could then be the Kenny to Sturridge’s Rush. I dont think anyone expected the following season it being Luis who was competing for the European Golden boot
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I’ll always regret that we hired Rodgers that summer instead of Klopp (I knew we tried for him but he was unavailable), and Luis might have had the chance to work under him. As it was he was easily the world’s third best forward at the time behind Messi and Ronaldo, but under Klopp he might have hit even greater heights and stayed for longer than he did.
For his part, I think Klopp would have loved working with Suarez.
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Comparing Nunez to Suarez is laughable.
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But both their names end with ‘ez’…