Sturridge Urges Liverpool to Sign Defensive Midfielder Fast

Daniel Sturridge has delivered a blunt message to Liverpool’s hierarchy: sign a defensive midfielder, and do it fast.

Liverpool’s Premier League title defence is already under scrutiny after a chaotic 2-2 draw at St James’ Park, where a 99th-minute Dominik Szoboszlai penalty was needed just to salvage a point against Newcastle. The late escape did little to hide the cracks.

Newcastle repeatedly sliced through Liverpool’s midfield, prompting Jamie Carragher to slam the club’s failure to fix an issue that haunted them last season. Under Andoni Iraola, the home side found the same joy between the lines that opponents enjoyed against Arne Slot’s team in 2023/24. The pattern hasn’t changed. That is exactly what worries Sturridge.

Sturridge: “Liverpool need a defensive midfielder”

On Sky Sports after the game, the former Liverpool striker cut straight to the heart of the problem.

“I think the team needs a defensive midfielder, personally. We’ve been talking about a defensive midfielder at Liverpool for the last three years,” he said.

Ryan Gravenberch’s emergence and Liverpool’s title win under Slot dulled some of the noise around that position, but Sturridge argued that the underlying issue never really went away.

“Gravenberch coming into the team, playing consistently and Liverpool winning the Premier League sort of changed that philosophy, but if you actually analyse the midfield, they’re all naturally more attacking players.”

The performance at Newcastle only reinforced that view. Liverpool’s midfielders can pass, create and carry the ball. Stopping counters, dominating duels, and screening the back four? That remains a grey area.

Sturridge then pointed to a very different type of player as the template. He highlighted Mamadou Sangare’s display for Brentford against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, praising the physical, destructive edge the new signing brought to midfield.

“Liverpool don’t have that profile of player right now,” he said. “I really like Trey Nyoni as a player. He’s brilliant, but he’s more of a ball-playing [number] 6 or [number] 8.

“He’s not a destroyer. He’s not someone who’s gonna strike fear into the opposition like Sangare can, or like N’Golo Kante over the years.”

That is the profile Sturridge believes Liverpool lack: a pure enforcer who can both shield and intimidate.

A hole everyone can see

Supporters hardly need convincing. After the chaos at St James’ Park, few Liverpool fans would argue against the idea that the squad is missing a specialist holding midfielder.

Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister formed a clever, technical double pivot in last season’s title run, but neither is a classic number 6. Both prefer to build play rather than destroy it. They can press, intercept and tackle, but their instincts lie higher up the pitch, not patrolling the space in front of the centre-backs.

Someone like Adam Wharton would fit the brief. The Crystal Palace midfielder reads danger, breaks up attacks and keeps the ball moving with minimal fuss. However, with the window into its final stretch, prising him away from Selhurst Park would take serious money and serious persuasion. At this stage, it looks unlikely.

Trey Nyoni, just 19, offers a different kind of promise. He has the vision and composure to operate at the base of midfield, but he is still developing physically and tactically. Throwing him in as the long-term anchor right now would be a huge gamble, and it would unfairly shift the burden from the boardroom to a teenager still learning the game.

Clock ticking on a crucial call

Liverpool’s need is obvious. The time to fix it is not.

With only days left before the summer window shuts, the club must decide whether to move decisively for a defensive midfielder or trust that the current mix can be reshaped to cover the gap. The evidence from Newcastle suggests the risk of standing still is huge.

Sturridge has made his plea. The fans can see the problem. The question now is whether Liverpool’s hierarchy are prepared to act before the deadline – or whether they will again ask an attacking midfield to do a destroyer’s job in a season where the margin for error is already shrinking.