Liverpool can ‘save’ £54m with transfer raid for Man City flop who Jürgen Klopp would love

The best and worst thing about football is that it can change in an instant. Three goals leads can disappear into oblivion within minutes. Titles can be lost in seconds and players can go from heroes to villains in a single moment.

So while Liverpool is amply stocked in the forward department at the moment, with top scorers in the league as they hunt down Manchester City, it hasn’t stopped the club from being linked with a hefty move for Darwin Núñez this summer. The Uruguayan will likely cost prospective suitors in the region £70m.

It’s a steep sum to pay, but Liverpool has to be prepared for contingencies in attack with both Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino likely to leave, and the futures of the club’s original front three still up in the air even as they are about to enter the last year of their contracts.

However, FSG might not necessarily have to pay the steep figures that are being touted about for forwarding candidates. They may be able to swoop under the radar and attract a talent who is catching the eye in La Liga, and who might be an ideal player for Jürgen Klopp’s gegenpressing system.

Enes Ünal is a name who will be familiar to the club’s Premier League title rivals, with the 24-year-old Turkish international having spent two years contracted to Manchester City, though he never really got close to the first team.

However, since leaving the Etihad for good, Ünal has slowly rebuilt his career and he has enjoyed an excellent run of form, particularly this season. The explosive and speedy forward, who is strong in the air and plays similarly to Núñez, has scored 15 goals in 32 La Liga appearances this season, playing for a Getafe side who are just five points away from relegation and who have scored a meager 31 goals altogether in the league this season.

Those are impressive figures for the 24-year-old, who is physically well-suited to the Premier League and who has one trait Klopp will absolutely love. In La Liga, Ünal ranks in the 98th percentile for pressures per 90, averaging a whopping 24.53 as per FBref, as well as making 9.96 pressures per 90 in the opposition’s final third. That ability to pressurize opponents from the front would make him an ideal attacker who is tailor-made for the club’s gegenpress system — far more so than for Man City, the club he left behind.

On top of that, he has the technical ability to involve himself in build-up play but also the aerial threat to give another dimension to Liverpool’s attack and a target for Trent Alexander-Arnold to aim his pinpoint crosses towards.

Valued at just £16.2m according to Transfermarkt, a ‘saving’ of some £54m on Núñez, he would certainly be a much cheaper alternative to the big-money signings Liverpool has been linked with so far, making this a no-brainer for FSG.