Liverpool's Title Bid: The Need for Eduardo Camavinga
Liverpool’s summer has been framed in simple terms: get back to winning the Premier League. Anything else feels like a compromise for a club that measures itself in titles, not top-four finishes or plucky transitions.
The problem is obvious enough. The last campaign was supposed to be a routine defence of the crown. Instead, Arne Slot’s sweeping changes knocked the team off its axis. The attack, once built around the ruthless efficiency of Mohamed Salah and the intelligent movement of Cody Gakpo, never really clicked. Their strengths were blunted, their output nosedived, and Liverpool’s forward line lost its familiar edge.
Now Salah has gone and Andoni Iraola stands on the touchline, charged with ushering in a new era. The sense around Anfield is that this is a reset, not a tweak. A club of Liverpool’s size cannot afford a gentle rebuild; it has to be sharp, decisive and aimed squarely at the top of the table.
That means transfers. More of them. And not just depth pieces or speculative projects. Liverpool need at least one heavyweight arrival in midfield.
A title bid built from the middle
On paper, the current midfield three of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch looks strong. Technically gifted, athletic, all in their prime years. On the pitch last season, only Szoboszlai consistently hit the level expected of a Liverpool starter chasing titles.
Mac Allister flickered rather than burned. Gravenberch, despite his later emergence as one of the Premier League’s standout defensive midfielders in 2024-25, spent the previous season searching for rhythm and authority. For a side with Liverpool’s ambitions, that inconsistency in the engine room is a risk they cannot carry into another campaign.
Little wonder most of the names linked to Anfield in recent months sit in the middle of the pitch. Among them, one refuses to go away: Eduardo Camavinga.
The Frenchman is one of Real Madrid’s most adaptable players, able to operate at the base of midfield, higher up, or even cover at full-back when required. Yet in Madrid, a core built around Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde has limited his minutes. For a player of his age and ability, that lack of regular starts has fuelled speculation.
Now, Liverpool’s hopes of prising him from the Bernabeu rest on a domino effect that begins, improbably, in Manchester.
City, Madrid and a transfer chain Liverpool are watching
A report from Ekrem Konur has outlined the scenario. Chelsea have tested the waters for Camavinga, but the midfielder has turned down all approaches and does not want to leave Real Madrid at this stage.
The equation changes if Madrid land one particular target.
“Reports suggest that if Real Madrid sign Rodri this summer, a Camavinga departure could become possible. The club are considering scenarios in which Camavinga is among the players who could be sold,” Konur wrote.
Strip it back and the picture is stark. For Liverpool to have a realistic shot at Camavinga, Manchester City would need to sell Rodri to Real Madrid. Only then, with Madrid’s midfield reshaped again, might Camavinga be pushed towards the exit and into the arms of a club ready to build around him.
It is a strange position for Liverpool: their ideal signing potentially unlocked by their fiercest domestic rival cashing in on their most reliable midfielder.
Why Camavinga fits the new Liverpool
Inside Anfield, the debate around the holding role has already been fierce. Gravenberch’s growth into one of the league’s best defensive midfielders in 2024-25 came only after a season when he fell well short of that standard. His early struggles left a mark.
Supporters also questioned the decision to move on Tyler Morton, who quickly established himself as a key figure at Lyon. With Stefan Bajcetic and James McConnell emerging as internal options, Liverpool do have bodies in that area. What they do not have is the depth of proven, world-class quality needed to fight on all fronts.
If you want to challenge for silverware every year, you need at least two elite-level choices for each key position. When injuries strike, the replacement has to look like a solution, not a stopgap.
This is where Camavinga stands apart from the usual shortlist of defensive midfielders. He is only 23, yet has already operated across almost every area of the pitch at the highest level. He can anchor a midfield, drive from box to box, slot into a double pivot or play wider when the system demands it. That blend of tactical intelligence and versatility is exactly what modern elite sides crave.
For Iraola, who demands intensity, flexibility and bravery on the ball, Camavinga would be close to the perfect piece. Young enough to grow with the project, experienced enough to shape it.
The catch? Liverpool’s ideal signing may only become available if Manchester City choose to weaken themselves to strengthen Real Madrid. In a title race defined by fine margins, will City really open that door?
