Liverpool must rue selling "legend" who outscored Diaz & Nunez in 2024

Liverpool have been here before. Winter has passed, and the biggest prizes lie tantalisingly ahead.

Having overcome Tottenham Hotspur over two legs, Liverpool have reached the Carabao Cup final, which will be played against Newcastle United next month.

Arne Slot’s side also won the Champions League group phase and bypassed the pesky added knockout round, straight into the last 16.

But it’s the Premier League that Anfield covets most. In its modern version, Liverpool have only lifted the trophy once, in 2020, and the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, two of the greatest players of their generation, are desperate to consolidate their quality with a second triumph.

You feel that were either of these veterans, both out of contract this summer, absent this season, Liverpool would be swimming deeper. Up front especially, Liverpool’s frontline needs to be doing more as a collective, with Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz’s performances raising speculation about their future at the club.

The future of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez

Liverpool have one of the most dangerous strike forces in Europe, but that’s not to say that every player is performing at the top of their game.

Salah has absurdly clinched 27 goals and 19 assists from 35 matches in all competitions, driving Liverpool to titles and, perhaps, himself to Ballon d’Or gold.

On the left, Cody Gakpo is also riding the crest of a prolific wave, but Diaz and Nunez are beginning to frustrate, with their combined goal involvements in 2024/25 – 25 – a steep distance below Salah’s haul of 46 contributions.

It may be that FSG decides to cash in this summer, especially since Fabrizio Romano confirmed that Nunez was close to joining Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr in January before they signed Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran.

Meanwhile, TEAMtalk revealed that while the Reds are keen to tie their Colombian left winger down to a new contract, there was intrigue from the Saudi Pro League in the summer, and Liverpool would entertain bids worth £67m.

Theoretically, Liverpool could bank more than £120m for their South American forwards this summer, something that could be redirected toward, say, transfer target Alexander Isak.

Both Diaz, 28, and the 25-year-old Nunez are talented players and contribute effectively to Slot’s project, but given that their goalscoring records leave plenty to be desired, it wouldn’t be right to say they’re indispensable.

Especially when former Liverpool sensation Luis Suarez managed to outscore the pair of them in 2024.

Liverpool must rue losing Luis Suarez

When Suarez was 24, he left Ajax and joined Liverpool in a deal worth £23m. It was an exciting transfer, though dwarfed by the signing of Andy Carroll, who arrived concurrently in January 2011.

Registering 123 goal contributions from 132 matches for the Merseysiders, it’s fair to say that Suarez is one of the greatest forwards in Liverpool’s modern history, almost singlehandedly winning the club their first Premier League title in 2013/14.

Who could forget that season? There are similarities between Salah’s unrelenting drive under Slot’s wing and Liverpool’s former all-powerful talisman, who plundered 31 goals and 13 assists from 33 top-flight matches that year but still came up short.

Unfortunately, Anfield was in a very different state back then, with Brendan Rodgers’ outfit lacking the same degree of evenly spread and high-class talent.

He’s been hailed as a “legend” of the game by talent scout Jacek Kulig, having forced his way out of Liverpool after that agonising title miss, signing for Barcelona in a deal worth £75m – a package that fell short of only Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale’s transfers to Real Madrid at the time.

Of course, the experienced marksman will have no regrets, not least because he went on to win the Champions League and five La Liga titles (one with Atletico Madrid) before leaving Europe and journeying across the pond. The greatest testament to Suarez’s skill set is that he wasn’t minnowed next to Lionel Messi, scoring 195 goals and providing 113 assists over 283 appearances.

Suarez now plies his trade in the MLS with Inter Miami, alongside former Barcelona teammates Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba, with the US campaigns typically starting in February and running until October.

He may be in the twilight phase of his storied career, but the Uruguayan still managed to chalk up some spectacular numbers, scoring 25 goals and adding 12 assists across 37 matches in all competitions.

That haul of 37 goal contributions is a distance more than both Nunez (24) and Diaz (27) registered for Liverpool across the calendar year 2024.

He’s still got it, and though English football’s fitness demands would represent an insurmountable hurdle for the ageing player, it’s pertinent to note that he’s still got it in front of goal, something that both Diaz, who has been deployed as a makeshift number nine this year, and Nunez have struggled to produce consistently.

Sure, you’d probably be right in supposing that the 38-year-old striker is past his Premier League sell-by date, and would not be a useful option in Slot’s high-energy Liverpool team, but Suarez went on to achieve greatness with Barcelona and could have become a true Anfield legend had he stayed.

The failure to effectively replace him only added insult to injury, with Ricky Lambert and Mario Balotelli tasked with replicating his offensive threat. Redmen supporters (and FSG) must count their lucky stars that Klopp was the man who replaced the beleaguered Rodgers at the helm.

However, it’s difficult to imagine a world where Rodgers would have remained instated in the dugout for many years past his dismissal, even had Suarez been retained. Perhaps we would be looking at a world where Klopp’s project would have been fronted by the iconic centre-forward.

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