Liverpool have hit gold on “special” star

Darwin Nunez scored a hat-trick for Liverpool in a behind-closed-doors clash against Stoke City, before Arne Slot and his lads jetted off to Japan for their pre-season tour.

Nunez, sporting a fresh buzzed trim, reminded a few that he knows where the back of the net is, but it’s likely that he will depart this summer.

The Uruguayan joined Liverpool from Benfica for an initial £64m figure in 2022. That fee might have risen to £85m, but the fact that it hasn’t is indicative of the striker’s struggles across his years on Merseyside, only scoring 25 goals in the Premier League across his three campaigns, reduced to the periphery since Slot replaced Jurgen Klopp one year ago.

Still, Nunez has won the Carabao Cup and the Premier League across his three years, and he will live long in the memory of the fanbase, for right reasons and wrong.

And given that Liverpool are set to splash the cash on an exciting replacement in Hugo Ekitike, it’s probably right that he moves on to pastures new.

Liverpool’s deal for Hugo Ekitike

Liverpool value Nunez at £70m, and sticking to that price tag ended lengthy negotiations with Napoli for the Uruguayan number nine.

Suitors remain in the Saudi Pro League, and though the 25-year-old may yet stay put, the acquisition of a top talent in Ekitike changes things, for this French forward has the chance to nail down a focal role for the Premier League champions.

However, there’s no guarantee that he will hit the ground running. Ekitike stormed his way through the 2024/25 campaign, scoring 22 goals and supplying 12 assists for Eintracht Frankfurt. His dynamic, robust style even led journalist Graeme Bailey to hail him as “the next Mbappe”.

Here’s the thing: the reason Liverpool’s top target was Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak stems from the fact that Isak is rather accomplished in the Premier League.

Sign him for the reported £130m fee and you know you’re going to get a world-class striker who will provide goal upon goal upon goal across the campaign.

He was “the best striker in the world” last season, according to analyst Raj Chohan. Alas, the Magpies rather like their frontman, and didn’t want to sell. In Ekitike, a forward of similar properties, Liverpool have the perfect alternative, but one who will require work and care over the coming years.

But Slot knows his stuff, all right, with something of a knack for elevating exciting players, willing them into superstars.

Take, for example, Cody Gakpo, who Ekitike might want to use as a benchmark as he makes his merry way toward prominence in the Premier League.

Liverpool have struck gold on Cody Gakpo

Liverpool signed Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven for £35m in January 2023. He was the talk of the town, having played a blinder for the Netherlands during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, scoring in each of his nation’s group stage matches.

Fending off interest from Manchester United for the versatile forward (much like with Ekitike in the present day), Gakpo, 25, has reached a level which has not just paid back the price tag but proved it to have been a shrewd investment.

While the Dutchman has always maintained a degree of prolificness for Liverpool, he’s become more complete, more refined, over the past 12 months, with pundit Peter Crouch remarking that he’s “gone up a level” under Slot’s wing.

Klopp utilised Gakpo in his own way, and Slot has made use of his talents differently. Across the 2023/24 season, Gakpo was played across almost every role imaginable, scattered across the park like so many leaves in the wind.

But Slot saw things in his own way, and played his countryman almost exclusively off the left wing, deeming his goalscoring ability to be best served in the role.

Last season in the top flight, Gakpo missed only six big chances in the Premier League, as per Sofascore, indeed scoring ten times.

In fact, as FBref record it, the Netherlands native ranked among the top 11% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues last season for goals scored but only the top 26% for total shots taken per 90, highlighting the economy of his ball striking.

This composure and accuracy are things that lingers as foibles in Ekitike’s skill set, and are drawbacks which must be worked on over the next few years. Slot will be happy to do so, as he has done with Gakpo since first arriving in the Premier League.

And that development is further evidenced through Gakpo’s financial growth. According to CIES Football Observatory, the £120k-per-week star is valued at about €104m (equating to £90m), which puts him on a taller pedestal than Ekitike, for sure.

Praised by Klopp for his “special” qualities, Gakpo is the real deal, and it’s exciting to think that he, along with Ekitike, will continue to grow and improve over the next several years, shaping him into an even more impressive forward.

If anything, Gakpo’s current level merely works in Ekitike’s favour: the French forward is creative and dynamic, works hard off the ball. In this way, he could be an exciting partner, elevating Gakpo’s goalscoring efforts.

And if he gets his head down and seeks to emulate his soon-to-be teammate’s growth, Slot may well find that he’s hit the jackpot once again, having already lifted Gakpo from his position as a talented forward and shaped him into one of the best in the business.