Why Liverpool signed Darwin Nunez over Alexander Isak 'as Reds plot huge new bid for Newcastle star' | OneFootball

Isak has become one of the world’s top strikers and is still sought after by Liverpool, while Nunez could leave Anfield this summer

Amid transfer speculation linking Liverpool with Alexander Isak, the reason behind the Reds’ decision to sign Darwin Nunez over the Newcastle star in 2022 has been revealed.

But while Nunez’s progress has stalled somewhat in the seasons since then, leading to repeated rumours of a cut-price move away from Anfield this summer, Isak has grown into one of the Premier League’s best strikers.

Given the two strikers’ contrasting fortunes, particularly last season when Isak’s league goals tally of 23 was more than quadruple that of Nunez, Liverpool’s detractors may view the decision to sign the streaky Uruguayan over his Swedish counterpart as a mistake.

In an interview with the Financial Times, former Liverpool director of research Ian Graham has suggested it was then-Reds manager Klopp who made the call to pursue Nunez over Isak thanks to the German manager gaining increasing power over transfer decisions.

“Jurgen created a lot of success for the club, so it’s understandable why it moved in that direction,” Graham said. “In 2022, he signed Darwin Nunez instead of Alexander Isak.

The ex-Liverpool staffer, who between 2012 and 2023 worked to implement data analysis into the club’s transfer policy, continued: “It would be very churlish of me to say, ‘It’s terrible that Jurgen had his choice’, when in the past Jurgen had been persuaded by me and my colleagues of a different choice. And it was still the case that we signed good players - in Nunez’s case, one of the best young strikers in Europe.”

Graham, now chief executive of sports advisory firm Ludonautics, also claimed that Klopp was persuaded by his recruitment team to sign Mohamed Salah from Roma instead of Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Brandt in the summer of 2017.

That momentous move to acquire Salah’s services would, of course, shape much of Liverpool’s success in the years that followed.

Discussing the influence of managers in club transfers, Graham said he believes the role of “coach as dictator” is specific to England and is also “something that is dying off”.