Liverpool's Search for a New Left-Back: Andrea Cambiaso in Focus
Liverpool have started to move on from Andy Robertson. The search for the next left-back at Anfield has begun, and the latest name on the list is a serious one: Andrea Cambiaso.
The Juventus defender has attracted an enquiry from Liverpool, according to Italian journalist Mirko Di Natale, and the level of competition for his signature underlines why. Tottenham, Manchester City, Inter, Napoli, Barcelona and Milan have all checked in on him. This is not a niche scouting project. This is a race for one of Europe’s most complete modern full-backs.
Life after a ‘club legend’
Liverpool know exactly what they are losing. Robertson, described by the club’s own website as “a club legend” in April, will leave at the end of the season when his contract expires. You do not quietly replace a player like that.
Milos Kerkez currently holds the shirt, but he cannot be left alone with it. Arne Slot wants competition and depth on that flank. Kostas Tsimikas, sent on loan to Roma last summer, looks increasingly like a short chapter rather than a long-term solution.
So the recruitment department has turned its gaze to Turin.
Cambiaso: two feet, one profile Liverpool crave
Cambiaso is 26, two-footed, and already one of the standout full-backs in Serie A. He can play as a traditional left-back, operate higher as a wing-back, or slot into a back four without fuss. For a coach like Slot, who values fluidity and rotations, that kind of tactical elasticity is gold.
He joined Juventus in 2022 and is tied down until 2029, a contract that tells you how highly the Italian giants rate him. This season he has produced three goals and four assists in 44 games across all competitions for Juve, numbers that hint at end product but only scratch the surface of his influence.
The real intrigue lies in how he plays, and who has watched him up close.
The Maldini comparison that turned heads
Mauro Tassotti, the AC Milan legend and long-time assistant at Genoa, worked with Cambiaso during the 2021/22 campaign. He came away stunned.
“I was immediately struck by Andrea’s ability to play both left and right. And above all his ability to kick with both feet,” Tassotti told La Gazzetta dello Sport in December 2023. He even admitted he still could not tell whether Cambiaso was naturally right or left-footed.
That uncertainty is not a flaw. It is a weapon. It allows Cambiaso to step inside, overlap outside, or switch play without telegraphing his intentions.
Tassotti went further, placing him in exalted company. In that two-footed assurance, he saw shades of Paolo Maldini. The comparison came with an important caveat – Maldini, he stressed, was physically more powerful, carried huge charisma, and was so strong defensively that he finished his career as a centre-back. But the echo was there: a defender who refuses to be boxed in by one foot or one flank.
Tassotti watched Cambiaso grow at Bologna and then seize his chances at Juventus. “In Bologna, he did very well. And at Juventus, when given the chance to play, he made the most of it,” he said. For a player still carving out his status at the elite level, that ability to maximise limited minutes matters.
In Tassotti’s eyes, Cambiaso’s best role is clear: a wing-back who can function as the fifth defender in a 3-5-2 or as a full-back in a back four. For Liverpool, who have often asked their full-backs to be playmakers, runners and auxiliary midfielders all at once, the fit feels obvious.
A full-back who thinks like a midfielder
Another coach who knows Cambiaso well, former Juventus and Tottenham boss Igor Tudor, offered a different angle. He sees a player who can step beyond the touchline and into the middle of the pitch.
“He can play as a mezzala,” Tudor said in September 2025, highlighting Cambiaso’s intelligence and positional feel. “He has a different kind of mind, in a good way. As a full-back, he sees things as a midfielder. Sometimes he moves inside, and he feels the positions.”
That is exactly the sort of profile top clubs now chase. Full-backs who invert, who step into midfield, who read spaces rather than simply patrol the flank.
Tudor gives his players freedom to adapt, and Cambiaso, in his view, thrives on that responsibility. “He’s a top-level player. He needs to be more consistent in his performances, and he has to work and grow. It always depends on him,” Tudor said. The ceiling, though, is not in doubt.
“Potentially, he’s a player for the best clubs in the world,” Tudor added. Then came the line that will have pricked ears on Merseyside: “He can play at Liverpool, Real Madrid or Manchester City, the top clubs in the world, but he has to say: ‘I’ll get there because every Sunday, I’m the best.’ If he says that, he can go and play there shortly.”
A crowded market, a clear need
That is the backdrop to Liverpool’s enquiry. They are not alone in spotting the opportunity. Di Natale’s update on May 6 spelled it out: Barcelona, Milan, Inter, Napoli, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham have all made contact over Cambiaso’s situation.
This is not a quiet, under-the-radar move. It is a scramble for a player whose contract length gives Juventus leverage but whose versatility and age make him an ideal long-term investment.
For Liverpool, the equation is stark. A “club legend” is walking away. The next left-back cannot simply be a stop-gap. He has to be good enough to grow into the role, to match the demands of a high-pressing, possession-heavy system, and to live with the weight of replacing Robertson.
Cambiaso, with his two-footed calm, tactical intelligence and endorsements from some of Italy’s sharpest football minds, ticks a lot of those boxes.
Now the question is simple: in a market packed with giants circling the same target, can Liverpool turn an enquiry into the signing that defines their next era on the left flank?
