Liverpool's Transfer Dilemma: A Lopsided Squad
Liverpool have just thrown another £200m-plus at the transfer market, outspending last summer’s rebuild. Yet Andoni Iraola walks away from the window not with a neatly stitched squad, but with a puzzle that looks short on pieces in some crucial areas.
Jamie Carragher did not bother dressing it up on Sky Sports. "It does not look like a balanced squad," he said. "Liverpool are short in the full-back areas and probably a midfield player as well."
That verdict lands harder when you remember they have just paid £123m for Bradley Barcola.
A lopsided attack
Barcola is a serious talent, but his signing underlines the strange shape of this Liverpool squad. The club have lost Mohamed Salah, the most devastating left-footed right-winger the Premier League has seen, and responded by stockpiling players who prefer the opposite flank.
"Liverpool have not got a real out-and-out right-sided attacker," Carragher added. "We have not got anybody with a left foot on that right side, like Mo Salah. I am disappointed. I am not quite sure what we are going to do on that right wing right now."
Barcola can play across the front line, but nobody pays that fee to use him out of position. His best work has come from the left. That is also where Cody Gakpo has been used so far this season, and where Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike have operated in the past.
Rio Ngumoha broke through on the left as well, only to be trialled on the opposite wing in pre-season. Victor Munoz? Another left winger by trade, signed after one standout season in the top flight.
One or two of them can adapt. That is not the point. The bigger issue is that Liverpool look overloaded in one channel and strangely bare in others. Curiosity, not crisis, for now. But supporters can see the gaps.
Full-backs at the heart of the problem
Those gaps appear most stark at full-back. When Jeremie Frimpong arrived last summer, the message from inside the club was clear: he was not a Trent Alexander-Arnold replacement. Yet in Iraola’s first two league games, there he is, stationed at right-back.
With Conor Bradley injured, Frimpong is the closest thing Liverpool have to a natural fit in the role. Some argue Dominik Szoboszlai could fill in there, but that would be a tactical compromise, not a solution. Shunting a centre-back wide would be even worse, given how central the full-backs are to Iraola’s blueprint.
The data backs that up. Frimpong and Milos Kerkez already sit among the top three players in the Premier League this season for sprints. The only man ahead of them? Adrien Truffert of Bournemouth, Iraola’s former side. His full-backs do not just join attacks. They live in them.
Look at the average positions from Liverpool’s opening two games compared to that title-winning season under Arne Slot. The full-backs push high, often together, stretching the pitch and pinning opponents back. It is thrilling when it works. It is brutal when it breaks.
Because when they go, the midfield has to lock the door.
Midfield structure under strain
That is where the questions pile up. Ryan Gravenberch stepped up magnificently in Slot’s title run, covering ground and driving forward. Now, with Alexis Mac Allister’s physical output clearly down over the past 18 months, the concern is obvious: does Iraola actually have the players to shut down counter-attacks?
Is he even looking for a classic holding midfielder? At Bournemouth, he wanted his midfielders to step up and squeeze. Alex Scott spoke about being "very aggressive" without the ball. Tyler Adams said the players "really believe that we are going to win the ball high up the field."
The intent is clear. The risk is, too.
"There have already been signs that this could be a problem," Carragher warned. "I do not believe that midfield can function with the personnel in there. For me, it does not work. And it is not just about personnel, it is the structure the manager is asking for."
The warning lights flashed within five minutes of Liverpool’s first Premier League game. Full-backs high, centre-backs deep, and a yawning gap in between. No midfielder plugging it. Newcastle sliced through that space and scored.
With Alexander-Arnold and Kerkez naturally aggressive, and Virgil van Dijk now more inclined to retreat than to step in, that weakness feels baked into the system unless something changes. Iraola has the most expensively assembled squad in Liverpool’s history. It might also be the most obviously flawed group the club have fielded in a decade.
Compromises or chaos?
If the transfer market will not fix it now, the answers must come from within. That means compromise.
"You do not want to lose the offensive side, the fluidity, the arrivals with numbers, but obviously we were punished the other day, especially in the first goal," Carragher said. "We did not do a proper lockdown."
He knows the tightrope Liverpool must walk. "There is a balance. We cannot go from one way where we send a lot of people forward to keeping everyone back so we do not arrive with numbers. I do not want to tell Ryan Gravenberch not to carry the ball or arrive in the box.
"It is a matter of identifying the situation. You cannot be with the joystick every time [controlling] the player. There are players that are very good at smelling the danger. 'I cannot risk going now. I think I have to stay.' Recognising those situations is the job."
Right now, Liverpool look like a team built for 4-3 thrillers rather than 1-0 grind-outs. High-scoring draws feel about right. The attack is stacked with talent, even if the right wing remains a riddle. The full-backs fly, the midfield gambles, the back line lives on the edge.
Imbalanced. Imperfect. But undeniably watchable.
The only real question is whether that chaos carries them towards a title race – or blows their season apart.
