The new season is just around the corner and Liverpool are still woefully short in forward areas – just what is the plan of attack?…
ANOTHER week of inactivity brings with it a pondering of how Liverpool’s attack will shape up come September.
The arrival of Ronald Araujo and the sight of Jeremy Jacquet in training have somewhat alleviated fears around centre-back. Jeremy Frimpong’s endurance has been tested over pre-season and so far he’s held up. Although right-back is still a concern.
In midfield, it’s anyone’s guess. The most likely scenario is Curtis Jones leaves and Trey Nyoni is trusted to play 25-30 games next season. And that Dominik Szoboszlai is treated solely as a central midfielder playing in a two. Alexis Mac Allister stays (I reckon). As does Wataru Endo to cover midfield and defence. Not ideal, but it will do. And we won a title with the very same midfield.
Which brings us back to the forward positions. Like Rust Cohle’s flat circle analogy, everything loops back around to who will be Andoni Iraola’s attacking options for 2026-27, sort of.
The Gutter mentioned Julian Alvarez on Wednesday because that’s what The Gutter does. It’s why he wins the awards. Gutter be guttering in that sense. It made a point Rob wasn’t trying to make, which is that almost everything is still possible and in-play. That the stillness of Liverpool waters can sometimes precede an almighty ripple.
The club seems to agree. When interest in Ibrahim Mbaye broke last week, there was an addendum added which claimed they are planning to have five wingers at the end of the window, with an additional young winger they would like to develop.
In lots of ways, they’ve set themselves up for a fall by providing a number, something they rarely do. We often ponder the sweet-spot they imagine while Richard Hughes adopts a Wizard of Oz-like figure from behind the curtain.
The big question there is what does Rio Ngumoha represent to them? Let’s say he was the young project still being developed, then they currently have two recognised wingers in Cody Gakpo and Victor Munoz. This would mean they’re planning to sign three established wingers before the end of the month.
The likelihood is they count Ngumoha as a first team player for the coming season, which gives them three. Still, that would leave them with two-to-three signings still to make in these positions alone.
If Liverpool added Bradley Barcola and Mbaye and briefed the young project was, say Keiran Morrison, I’m not sure how confident I’d be in that plan. For starters, Morrison is older than both Mbaye and Ngumoha.
Secondly, it would leave Liverpool with three wingers whose ages all end in teen, a big-hitter in Barcola, a streaky Gakpo and untested Munoz.
Mbaye could be the young project, but at around £40m and given some of the turmoil around his PSG career has stemmed from a self-imagined claim that he’s better than Ousmane Dembele, I’m not sure he’d be coming to Liverpool as sixth choice.
To throw further confusion into the mix, Gakpo is continuing to be linked to Tottenham. Let’s ponder them selling him for a second. That would leave them with just two and a need for four (young player dependent).
Barcola and Mbaye were both left on the bench for PSG’s Super Cup win over Aston Villa on Thursday. It looks almost certain that at least one of those players end up at Anfield. Away from those two, the three other players mentioned on Liverpool’s shortlist are yet to move.
Said El Mala looks destined for Borussia Dortmund, leaving Matias Fernandez-Pardo from Lille and Yakuba Minteh of Brighton. Fernandez-Pardo is attracting interest from most of Europe and is believed to be gettable at around £60m. Minteh has a Premier League tax and would cost around £80m in the current market. Oh, and he’s also injured from a pre-season fixture with the prognosis unknown.
With interest in El Mala and Fernandez-Pardo hotting up, Liverpool might break out their signature hijack move if they feel the price has been set and they’re now forced into action. Ones to keep an eye on over the coming days.
Still with me? Confused? Given up? What’s ironic about this entire riddle is that Liverpool are the ones creating it. If the brief was they simply wanted two for each wing you could end up solving the puzzle pretty quickly.
What they haven’t said, of course, is what they plan to do at number nine. Alexander Isak will need rotating. We won’t need hindsight to offer wisdom after the fact. When the club decided to pay £125m for his services they knew exactly what they were getting. Mobile, dynamic and predatory in front of goal. But breakable and lacking durability. They also knew that Hugo Ekitike is unlikely to kick a ball until 2027.
Federico Chiesa has never been used in his proper position off the left for Liverpool and they won’t start now. There’s been an emerging trend over pre-season with Chiesa around how he presses. From the body language of the coaching staff and teammates, he isn’t doing what is asked. It’s notable that against Leeds and Monaco the first press all but disappeared when he was on the pitch.
We’re already seeing his minutes dissipate in friendlies, so what happens when Iraola’s side start playing two games a week as early as September and we need to rotate Isak out of the lineup for one of them. Worse, what happens when the Swede inevitably requires time on the sidelines?
The answer cannot be Chiesa. In the same way I’m not sure the answer for a Florian Wirtz alternative is Harvey Elliott, but I don’t have the time or will to tackle that situation alongside everything else already on fire.
So, the attack. Is it five wide players and two nines? Is it six and one? Is it six with two who can potentially play nine? What constitutes a young player? Help.
The only way any of this makes sense is through squad additions that provide quality and the requisite cover to negotiate the season. Something we absolutely don’t have right now.
Two and a half weeks of the month left. Maybe then we can focus on the football, Amazon owners, queueing to get in Anfield or whatever else emerges from the tumult of supporting Liverpool Football Club in 2026.
It will be a break from this madness.
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