Liverpool's Transfer Window: Wingers, Midfielders, and Right-Backs Needed

Liverpool’s transfer window is not finished. Andoni Iraola has made that clear. The question now is not if they will buy, but where they will load up before the deadline slams shut.

Wide areas top the shopping list

The wings are flashing red on Liverpool’s depth chart. Left and right remain the most obvious priorities, and the club have already moved into negotiation mode.

Talks are ongoing with PSG over Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye, two young wide forwards who fit Liverpool’s recent recruitment profile: quick, direct, technically sharp, with room to grow. At the same time, reports say a £50m offer for Yankuba Minteh has been knocked back.

That Minteh bid feels like part of the game. The timing, the fee, the swift rejection – it all looks like a way of nudging PSG on their valuation of Mbaye, a reminder that Liverpool are not short of alternatives. Whether it works or not, the message is clear: Iraola wants at least one winger, and ideally two.

Because just signing Barcola and Mbaye would still leave Liverpool walking a tightrope across a long season. The Premier League, Europe, domestic cups – Iraola’s system demands high intensity from his wide players. He needs numbers, not just names.

Midfield squeezed by exits and workload

Then comes the midfield, where the picture is getting thinner by the day.

Curtis Jones is on his way to Inter Milan. Even before that move, there was a sense around the club that Iraola needed another body in the middle of the pitch to handle the volume of games coming. If Jones goes, that need turns into an obligation.

Iraola’s style leans on aggressive pressing, quick transitions, and midfielders who can cover ground relentlessly. One more signing in that area is almost non-negotiable if Liverpool want to survive the schedule without running key players into the ground.

Adam Wharton is the dream pick. The Crystal Palace midfielder has impressed to the point that Liverpool would love to bring him in, but the £100m asking price plants a huge roadblock in the way of any move. At that figure, admiration may be all it ever is.

Right-back: the specialist debate

Right-back remains one of those positions that keeps surfacing in fan debates, even with Ronald Araujo capable of filling in there to a solid standard.

Araujo can do a job. He’s reliable, strong defensively, and tactically intelligent enough to shuffle across when needed. But that’s the issue: “when needed.” For a club chasing titles, a makeshift solution over a full campaign is a risk.

A specialist right-back would change the dynamic. Someone who lives in that channel, who understands the angles, the overlaps, the timing of underlaps in Iraola’s attacking patterns. That’s where Hector Fort comes in.

Linked with a loan move earlier in the window, the 20-year-old has stood out on closer inspection. The raw materials are there: energy, technique, and the profile of a modern full-back who can both defend and contribute in the final third. He wouldn’t just be cover; he’d be competition.

Iraola’s promise – and the clock

Pressed directly on the issue in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher asked what every Liverpool supporter wants to know: are more signings coming?

Iraola didn’t dance around it.

“We will definitely sign some players. Some deals you have to wait until the end. But the end is the important picture, the one we will have on September 1. Because it is true that we are still quite thin.”

That last line is the key. “Quite thin.” The manager knows it, the fans see it, and the club’s transfer activity reflects it.

Four names stand out as the ideal scenario before Deadline Day: Barcola, Mbaye, Wharton, and Fort. Two wingers to inject pace and unpredictability, a midfielder to anchor and energise the centre, and a right-back to lock down a problem spot.

Wharton’s price tag makes that move unlikely, maybe even unrealistic. The others feel more attainable. But if Liverpool can land most of that quartet, Iraola’s squad suddenly looks a lot more like one built to attack the 2026/27 season, not just survive it.

The promise has been made. Now the window will reveal whether Liverpool are serious about arming Iraola for a title fight, or prepared to roll into September still “quite thin” in the areas that matter most.