“Now we are set up slightly different, with a different confidence level. We used the full pre-season to get used to that. In that moment when we are defensively stable then he has to play from the centre. It is to make sure we are compact but we don’t have to judge all the different options of the opponent where they could go through. We got used to Bobby [Firmino] and then Cody [Gakpo] stepped in really well, and then all of a sudden Darwin’s first thing should be to stretch the formation and be there.”
If some of Nunez’s initial issues were positional, others were verbal. Klopp can be the great communicator, but a language barrier divided him. “You see this incredible talent, massive potential, but it’s difficult to unfold it,” he recalled. “I’m obviously a manager who can help a player but I need contact for that. In an ideal world, you can speed up the process by talking a lot with the player. I was not able to do that because I don’t speak Spanish, but his English is now much better and my Spanish still isn’t.” It helps that Nunez also has another interpreter. The multilingual Alisson Becker was a go-between but he is also a goalkeeper. Enter Alexis Mac Allister, a summer signing who is passer, translator and mini-manager. “Macca is a super smart footballer so if I forget to tell him something Macca tells him anyway,” Klopp said.
Not that Mac Allister’s wisdom was called into question during Nunez’s false start to life at Anfield. Klopp paid an initial £64m, which could rise to a club record £85m. He did not try and shy away from the fee. “He came in for really big money. We all know, if you have another year and another year like that…” The fear for Klopp may have been that Nunez would be dismissed as his most expensive mistake. For now, even among the misses, he may be filling opponents with dread.
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