Liverpool's Imbalanced Squad: A £200m Gamble

Liverpool have just spent another £200m-plus, more than they did a year ago. Yet as the window shuts, Andoni Iraola is left with a squad that looks expensive, explosive – and oddly misshapen.

Jamie Carragher did not bother dressing it up. "It does not look like a balanced squad," he told Sky Sports. "Liverpool are short in the full-back areas and probably a midfield player as well." It was a blunt verdict on a club that has just dropped £123m on Bradley Barcola.

That signing cuts right to the heart of the argument. Liverpool have lost Mohamed Salah, the most devastating left-footed right-winger the Premier League has seen. In response, they have stacked the other flank. The attack looks tilted, heavy on left-sided options, light on the right.

"We have not got a real out-and-out right-sided attacker," Carragher said. "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 versatility only stretches so far when the fee screams “centrepiece”. His best work has not come off the right. Cody Gakpo has been parked on the left. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike have both spent time there too.

Rio Ngumoha broke through on that flank as well, only to be flipped to the opposite side in pre-season. Victor Munoz, signed after a single top-flight campaign, is another natural left winger being nudged into the frame as a possible solution on the right.

One or two of those gambles might come off. That is not the issue. The unease lies in the wider picture. This is a squad swollen in certain zones and stripped back in others, with obvious gaps in areas that matter most to Iraola’s high-risk football.

Full-Back Concerns

Full-back is the clearest example. When Jeremie Frimpong arrived last summer, Liverpool were at pains to insist he was not a Trent Alexander-Arnold replacement. Two games into this season, he has started at right-back twice.

With Conor Bradley injured, Frimpong is the only specialist fit enough to handle the role. Some would push Dominik Szoboszlai back there, but that feels like a workaround, not a plan. Dragging a centre-back wide is even less appealing when the full-backs are so central to Iraola’s blueprint.

The numbers underline that. Frimpong and Milos Kerkez sit among the top three players in the Premier League for sprints so far. Above them? Adrien Truffert, bombing on for Iraola’s old club Bournemouth. The job description has not changed. The full-backs are the launchpad.

Look at the average positions from Liverpool’s first two league games and compare them to that title-winning season under Arne Slot. Both full-backs push high, often together. It is thrilling when it works. It is brutal when it does not. And it leaves a huge burden on the midfield to plug the gaps.

That is where the anxiety spikes. Ryan Gravenberch rose to that responsibility under Slot, but he cannot be everywhere. Alexis Mac Allister’s physical drop-off over the last 18 months has been clear. Does Iraola have the right profile of midfielder to shut down counters if he keeps asking so many to flood forward?

There is also the philosophical question: does he even want a classic holding midfielder? At Bournemouth, Iraola demanded his players hunt. Alex Scott spoke about being "very aggressive" without the ball. Tyler Adams said the squad believed they would win it back high up the pitch. That is the mindset now being imported to Anfield.

The warning signs are already there. "I do not believe that midfield can function with the personnel in there," Carragher said. "For me, it does not work. And it is not just about personnel, it is the structure the manager is asking for."

Within five minutes of Liverpool’s opening Premier League fixture, the rest defence was laid bare. Full-backs pushed up, centre-backs retreating, and a yawning chasm in between. Newcastle strode into that space and scored. The pattern felt familiar, the vulnerability obvious.

Given the way Liverpool’s full-backs operate and Virgil van Dijk’s growing tendency to drop off rather than step in, that weakness will not magically disappear. Iraola has been handed the most expensive squad in the club’s history, but also the most clearly flawed one in a decade.

Fixing it without new signings means compromise. Something has to give. "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, outlining the dilemma.

"We did not do a proper lockdown. But 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."

For now, Liverpool look like a team built for chaos. High-scoring draws feel like a fair reflection of where they are: capable of overwhelming anyone, incapable of shutting the door on everyone. An imbalanced, imperfect side, yes – but one that might just turn the Premier League season into a rollercoaster.