Harry Redknapp has told Liverpool to keep striker Darwin Nunez this summer as “there’s not a lot of options on the market at the moment”.
The Reds were crowned Premier League champions nine days ago after Arne Slot’s side beat Tottenham 5-1 to win the title in the Dutchman’s first season.
Despite a brilliant campaign, Slot and the Liverpool board are keen to add at least three players to their squad in the summer transfer market.
One of the positions they are looking to improve is centre-forward with Nunez falling out of favour under Slot this season – but former Premier League manager Redknapp reckons they should persevere.
Redknapp told BetVictor: “I don’t think Liverpool should let Darwin Nunez go. He can be a real handful for defenders and is lightning quick; a centre-back’s worst nightmare. If they did let him go, I don’t think they’d necessarily need to find a replacement; Liverpool have a lot of depth in forward positions and there’s not a lot of options on the market at the moment.
“There’s Matheus Cunha at Wolves, who looks like he could be nearing a move to Manchester United, he’s a great player. But I’m not sure what kind of forward Liverpool are after, because Cunha isn’t an ‘out and out’ number nine.
“Everybody is looking for forwards, but where do you find them? Arsenal need to find a striker from somewhere, but who’s around? Harry Kane and Erling Haaland are the best in the field at the moment, but it’s very difficult to find world class players up front.”
Former Liverpool midfielder Don Hutchinson has urged Nunez to take a leaf out of Robbie Fowler’s book when it comes to composure.
Hutchinson told goldenpanda.com: “I texted Robbie the other day because I know him, and I asked him about the ACL and he said he’d done it against Everton, and he said ‘I was never the same afterwards.’
“When we were coming through at Liverpool when I was 18, our team at the time was David James in goal, Rob Jones who was a brilliant right back, who had lots of back injuries but he was rapid. He was probably the only player back in the day, back in the 90s, that sort of half had an angle on Giggsy. And I say that very loosely, by the way, because Giggsie was just one of the best Premier League players of all time, but Rob was very, very quick and sort of handled him a little.
“And then we had guys like Steve Harkness, Jamie Redknapp, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler. And I was coming through at the same time.
“But Robbie was a phenomenal natural finisher. He was such a good player and he turned it on against Man United when he shoved Gary Neville out of the way, and scored beautiful goals. But he was just a natural. Left foot, right foot, great in the air. He was ice cold in the box.
“You see Darwin Nunez now. He panics when he’s in the 18-yard box. He wants to get his shot off. He can’t wait to get his shot off. He’s erratic. Robbie was the complete opposite.
“He’s the calmest centre-forward I think I’ve ever played with. He said after his ACL, he couldn’t quite get back to that peak. And I know that first hand, because I’d done my ACL at West Ham and I never got back to the same level either. So, yeah, it’s a brutal injury, especially back then to rehab and come back from. He was some player, Robbie.”