Liverpool's Defensive Rebuild: The Urgent Need for New Centre-Backs

Liverpool’s next rebuild will not start in attack. It can’t. Not with the heart of their defence slowly being ripped out.

Ibrahima Konaté is running his contract down on Merseyside and, as things stand, is on course to leave as a free agent. At 26, a France international in his prime, his departure would punch a sizeable hole straight through the spine of Arne Slot’s team. This is not a fringe problem. It’s the problem.

Virgil van Dijk is still there, still the captain, still the reference point. But only for so long. He has 12 months left on his deal and turns 35 in July. Liverpool are not just losing Konaté; they are staring at the end of the Van Dijk era and all the security that came with it. Finding the next leader of that back line is no longer a theoretical discussion for the future. It is an urgent job for 2026.

The timing jars with what Liverpool did only a year earlier. In 2025, they threw money at the other end of the pitch, shattering British transfer records to bring in Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike. Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez arrived to refresh the full-back positions. The club spent like a side intent on overwhelming opponents, not one preparing for a defensive reset.

Now the bill has arrived.

The centre of that defence creaks, and the market knows it. Liverpool have already been linked with a string of centre-backs currently plying their trade for Premier League rivals. Murillo, the eye-catching Brazilian at Nottingham Forest, has pushed his way onto several shortlists with his blend of composure and aggression. Micky van de Ven, with his raw pace and power at Tottenham, is another name being floated, even if Spurs manage to drag themselves clear of relegation trouble.

Premier League experience feels like the obvious filter. Glen Johnson, the former Liverpool full-back, believes it should carry serious weight.

“Possibly,” he told GOAL, speaking on behalf of BetMGM, when asked if that should be the priority. “I think it's important with Premier League experience in whatever position they're trying to improve in, because it's not just improving the position, they need to compete with whoever's going to be the league winners.

“It's not as easy as getting someone with that experience, they just need to be good enough. But I definitely feel proven, they haven't got the time to buy a 20-year-old that could be the best player, best centre-back in five years' time or six years' time, they need to start competing now.

“So those two look like the obvious if you had to pick out of the Premier League, but if they're good enough to step up to that level to compete for titles, given the chance, we'll never know.”

The message is clear: Liverpool cannot afford a long-term project at centre-half. They need someone who can walk straight into a title race, not just a training session.

Johnson goes further. For him, this is not a one-signing fix.

“They probably need two,” he said, before slightly contradicting his own demand for instant readiness. “But going against what I said just now, one that can step in now that's good enough to compete, and then one that can potentially replace them in three or four years.

“They haven't really done that in the past, but that would be a sensible option for me. That doesn't prove that it works, but they need a centre-half now, and they're going to need to replace another one in a couple of years.”

One for the present. One for the future. It is the kind of layered planning Liverpool have not always embraced in defence, where the strategy for years was simple: give the ball to Van Dijk and let him sort out the chaos.

Now the question is who makes those calls.

Slot, a year on from delivering the Premier League title to Anfield, stands under a very different kind of spotlight. The glow has dimmed. The scrutiny has sharpened. Boos rolled down from the stands again during the 1-1 draw with Chelsea, a soundtrack that would have been unthinkable in the immediate afterglow of that championship.

Liverpool cling to fourth place, their grip on a Champions League spot more tense than triumphant. Qualification is still on the cards, but the mood around Anfield does not match the league position. This season was meant to be a consolidation of power, not a nervous shuffle over the line.

Talk of change in the dugout has already surfaced, just as another reconstruction of the squad looms. The attack has been paid for. The full-backs have been refreshed. The next act is clear: rebuild the defence, and by extension, the identity.

Konaté’s contract, Van Dijk’s age, the noise around Slot, the restless stands – they all point in the same direction. Liverpool are approaching a decisive summer.

The only real unknown is whether the club still has the conviction and clarity to get the biggest decisions in the most important part of the pitch absolutely right.