The amount of money Liverpool is putting in Darwin Nunez has gotten a lot of attention.
The Uruguay striker lands at Anfield for a cost that will almost certainly eclipse the £75 million they paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk in January 2018.
Benfica revealed on Monday that they had agreed to transfer Nunez to Liverpool for £64 million plus £21.4 million in add-ons. On Tuesday, Liverpool supplied their own confirmation.
However, the Merseyside club will most likely be bidding farewell to a crucial player at the same time, with Sadio Mane linked with a move to Bayern Munich.
So, can Nunez match or perhaps surpass what the Senegal international has accomplished during his time at Liverpool?
We examine the 22-year-old to see what Liverpool could receive for their money.
Is Nunez a Mane stand-in?
The fact that Nunez is being signed exclusively to score goals stands out above all else.
He didn't get off to a great start at Benfica after joining for €24 million from Almeria in September 2020, scoring just six goals in 29 Primeira Liga games (19 starts) in 2020-21, but he more than made up for it this season.
Nunez had an anticipated goals (xG) rating of 9.98 in his first season, implying he wasn't scoring as many as he should have. In 2021-22, he almost made up for it by scoring 26 goals in 28 league games (24 starts) with an 18.4 xG.
Mane, who is a contender for the Ballon d'Or in 2022, scored 16 goals in 34 Premier League games (32 starts), an xG figure that is strikingly comparable to Nunez's (18.3). While the opportunities that went their way were similar in value throughout the season, the Uruguayan was significantly more clinical.
Of course, there is a quality differential between England's top tier and Portugal's top flight, but the two teams matched up well in the Champions League.
Nunez had six goals in ten games (six starts) with an xG of 3.1, while Mane had five goals in thirteen games (11 starts) with an xG of 4.5. The 22-year-old was once again a more consistent finisher of chances than the Senegalese international.
It remains to be seen whether Nunez can convert this to English football, but there are other interesting comparisons between the two players that suggest they aren't as dissimilar as some may believe.
Nunez and Mane both displayed a high level of innovation in their respective leagues last season. The former had four assists from a total of 4.8 expected assists (xA), whereas Mane only had two from 4.4 xA, implying that he was let down by his teammates' poor finishing on occasion.
Both players have shown they can run with the ball, trying 86 dribbles each during the 2021-22 season, however Mane's success percentage of 54.7 percent was substantially higher than Nunez's 45.4 percent.
The main difference between the two is that Mane, a former Southampton attacker, has mostly played off the left flank for Liverpool, whilst Nunez is primarily a center forward.
That should not be an issue, as the Reds merely addressed that aspect of the pitch a few months ago by shopping in a familiar market.
Isn't it the Premier League? It's done, amigo.
Many people were surprised when Liverpool was obliged to sign Luis Diaz from Porto at the end of the January transfer window, because it is a league they are familiar with.
Not that they hadn't planned to purchase Diaz in the first place, but reports stated they were planning to do so at the end of the season, only for an unexpected offer from Tottenham to push the deal forward.
It was a welcome necessity, as Diaz hit the ground running and helped Liverpool come close to achieving the unthinkable by winning a quadruple.
With the Colombian moving to the left side of the attack, Mane was forced to play in an unfamiliar central position for the balance of the season, which he did admirably.
Nunez will be a more natural fit in that center role than Diaz, and both will be looking for a smooth transfer from the Primeira Liga to the Premier League.
He's already proven that he can cut it against English opposition in two appearances against Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals this season.
Virgil van Dijk recently listed Nunez as one of his toughest ever opponents in an interview with Rio Ferdinand, despite Jurgen Klopp's side winning 3-1 in the first leg in Lisbon. Nunez scored the Benfica goal and played well enough that Virgil van Dijk recently listed him as one of his toughest ever opponents in an interview with Rio Ferdinand.
When Van Dijk was unavailable, he may have impressed even more in the return leg at Anfield. Nunez routinely pulled out to the left, stretching Liverpool's defense, and he could have had a hat-trick if it hadn't been for their effective offside trap.
Nunez scored three times in the Liverpool goal, but two of them were ruled out by the assistant referee as Benfica drew 3-3 on aggregate.
In the closing 10 minutes, though, he demonstrated his force of personality by forcing a fantastic stop from Alisson and almost dragging his team back into a game they had previously been well out of.