Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand are already being proven right over Liverpool transfer decision

The view of Liverpool’s big-money’s summer signing Darwin Nunez has quickly changed after Thursday night.

Liverpool spent a club-record £85million to snap up Nunez from Benfica, moving to strengthen their front line amid the departure of Sadio Mane.

The Uruguayan was superb last season, scoring 34 goals for Benfica, including six in the Champions League and one against Liverpool.

But he made a slow start to the pre-season and came in for criticism after footage emerged of him enduring a difficult training session.

In reality, pre-season is all about shaking off the rust, and even a disastrous pre-season doesn’t always translate into a poor season.

But in any case, Nunez has already proved people wrong, scoring as many as four goals during a 5-0 pre-season win over RB Leipzig on Thursday.

And suddenly, there is renewed excitement around Liverpool’s marquee signing, not that pundits Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand needed that extra reason.

“Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp normally get their recruitment right certainly when they spend big,” Liverpool legend Carragher said when asked about the fee earlier this summer.

“The figures we’re talking - that’s what they spent on the goalkeeper and Van Dijk and they made a huge difference.

“Liverpool right now do need to refresh their front line because of the age of that front three who have been absolutely fantastic over the last four or five years for Liverpool.

“It is sad to see it broken up in some ways but it had to come to an end sooner or later and with Sadio Mane looking like he’s going to move on, Liverpool had to do something and he’s the one they’ve identified.”

It’s not just Liverpool-associated pundits who are excited, with Ferdinand previously saying on his podcast: “Watched a lot of this guy in the Champions League last season…Virgil Van Dijk gave a glowing reference in a recent interview.

“Looks like a top signing for Liverpool unfortunately.”