Angus is an experienced football journalist at Football FanCast, specialising in Premier League reporting, opinion writing and in-depth football analysis. Since graduating from Southampton Solent University in 2022, he has developed extensive experience covering the English game, producing thousands of articles across a wide range of clubs and competitions.  

Before joining Football FanCast, Angus led VAVEL's Brighton & Hove Albion department, gaining valuable experience in club-specific reporting and editorial leadership. He subsequently joined Football FanCast through Snack Media's academy, now part of Valnet, and has progressed into the publication's Opinions and Features team.
 

As one of Football FanCast's longest-serving writers, Angus has covered numerous major developments across the Premier League, combining breaking news experience with detailed features and considered opinions. His work draws on years of reporting to provide context behind performances, transfer activity and the wider issues shaping English football.

Liverpool were dealt their second Premier League defeat of the season on Sunday afternoon, losing once again at Anfield, this time against reigning champions Arsenal.

What to make of Andoni Iraola's squad? At times, Liverpool have looked like they are returning to form as bona fide contenders at the top of the Premier League, but there's clearly a gulf in quality and coherence, a bridge to gap between them and the division's elite.

When Jurgen Klopp's project was in its heyday, it felt like FSG could do no wrong in the transfer market. But that's changed in recent years, with Liverpool's fall-off actually starting when the legendary German was still at the helm.

Look at the record-breaking move to sign Darwin Nunez from SL Benfica.

Why Darwin Nunez was such a disaster at Liverpool

Nunez, aged 27, is now into his second season in the Gulf region, having left Liverpool in 2025. He scored 40 goals across 143 appearances for the Anfield side, winning the Carabao Cup and the Premier League, but he never came close to living up to the £85m price tag Liverpool met to bring him over to England.

Liverpool were supposed to be transitioning away from the days of Bobby Firmino in the false nine, and delivering for Merseyside a world-class striker with the ability to rival the very best of them in the Premier League. In Nunez's final season in Portugal with Benfica, he scored 34 goals across 41 appearances, bagging against the likes of Liverpool and Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

In fairness, Nunez left Liverpool after three years with many fans still on board. He is well-liked on Merseyside, but the fact remains that FSG never got bang for their buck, the Uruguayan missing an absurd number of big chances and failing within two managers' successful systems to hit the right notes.

Liverpool felt that they had completed the ultimate upgrade when replacing him with Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike last summer, but thus far, the Reds are struggling to fashion a frontline sharp and slick enough to fire themselves back into the ascendancy.

There are problems all over the park, though, with a member of the Liverpool team found on the other end of the field emerging as the new version of Nunez.

Liverpool flop is starting to look like the new Nunez

Liverpool's spending has become far more scattergun in recent years, and this has been reflected through the erratic, topsy-turvy nature of the club's performances on the field.

Embodying this sharp downswing is Milos Kerkez, who became one of the most expensive full-backs in Premier League history when he signed for Liverpool in a £40m deal in 2025, leaving Iraola's Bournemouth project with the wind in his sails.

Kerkez's adventurous style and desire to venture into dangerous positions established him as one of the most exciting widemen in the world while plying his craft with Bournemouth. Now he is a shadow of that player; he has struggled to transition to life at a more demanding outfit (no disrespect to the Cherries).

Fundamentally, the 22-year-old seems to struggle with the mental side of the game. He struggles to make the right decisions at the right moments, and he has yet to forge a smooth, productive partnership with the likes of Cody Gakpo or Bradley Barcola down Liverpool's left flank.

Against Arsenal on Sunday, the Hungary international's flaws were brutally exposed. He lost four of five ground battles across the afternoon, at times resembling a headless chicken as he failed to subdue Noni Madueke on Arsenal's right.

Last season, Kerkez was one of the guiltiest culprits when it came to Liverpool's decline. There was hope that he made some tweaks this summer to return to form, but this hasn't been the case, with his latest disaster against Arsenal making the cold comment that he is simply not good enough.

Analyst Asim Mahmood admitted in the wake of the defeat that "it's critical Liverpool replace him" during the winter transfer window. Whether FSG will do that remains to be seen, but Kostas Tsimikas is hardly a Liverpool-standard replacement.

Kerkez is shaping up as Nunez 2.0 in that he has obvious physical qualities and enough technical ability to thrive for one of the Premier League's most demanding outfits.

However, application is becoming his biggest challenge. It's a real concern for a club who saw such potential when spending big money to bring to Anfield and replace a legend in Andy Robertson.

Sadly, technical director Julian Ward is going to have to make signing a new left-sider a priority once again, sooner than anticipated, as was the case with Nunez a few years ago.