With less than two weeks to go until the start of the 2026-27 Premier League season, Liverpool still look short in certain areas. What else do the Reds need to do before the close of the summer transfer window?
As title defences go, it wasn’t the best.
Liverpool invested heavily in their squad last summer, looking to build from a position of strength after winning the 2024-25 Premier League title, but football is rarely that simple. New arrivals struggling to settle, several players unable to stay fit, and head coach Arne Slot falling out with star player Mohamed Salah all didn’t help matters.
Ultimately, a fifth-place finish and Champions League qualification was actually pretty good considering they conceded 53 goals and lost 12 games in the league, but it wasn’t enough to keep Slot in post just 12 months after lifting the title.
Andoni Iraola has been brought in after three impressive years at Bournemouth, looking to bring a high-energy style back to Liverpool, but does he have the players to do so?
There have been flashes of it in pre-season, but their last two friendlies against Leeds United and Monaco have both seen them lose despite going 2-0 ahead early on.
Those inconsistent performances suggest that while the first XI is strong, there is perhaps not enough beneath that. Injuries and late World Cup returns haven’t helped, but neither has a lack of incomings in the transfer market. Ronald Araujo have also come in to boost the defence, but it feels like more needs to be done in the last three weeks of the transfer window to give Iraola the tools to work with.
That could be tricky given Araujo makes it 17 non-homegrown players – players who were not trained in England for a minimum of three years before turning 21 – the maximum allowed. To register any more, they would need to lose one.
So, what areas require attention? This is our Liverpool squad audit ahead of 2026-27.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Nothing is needed in goal, with Freddie Woodman signed a new deal a few weeks ago as a steady and homegrown third choice.
There was a need to do something at centre-back after Ibrahima Konaté left on a free transfer to Real Madrid at the end of the season. Jacquet was signed from Rennes in January ahead of arriving this summer, but he’s only recently turned 21, and it would be a big ask to immediately make him Giovanni Leoni, but Van Dijk is 35 and played 55 games for the club last season, as well as featuring for the Netherlands at the World Cup. He surely needs to be rested at some point.
Jacquet has recovered from that shoulder injury, but still hasn’t featured in pre-season after sustaining a supposedly minor knee issue in training. Gomez is sidelined for the next few weeks, going off just minutes into the first pre-season friendly this summer with a muscle issue, and teenager Leoni’s return date is still up in the air after suffering an ACL injury on his debut last September.
Ifeanyi Ndukwe has impressed in pre-season, but the 18-year-old Austrian has been unable to get a work permit, so will need to be loaned out.
Liverpool have moved to address the issue, though, with Araujo coming in on a season-long loan from Barcelona. The Uruguayan will presumably be Van Dijk’s main partner given he has reportedly agreed to the move due to being told by Hansi Flick that he wouldn’t be getting regular starts for his team. After falling out of favour following some high-profile errors last season, Araujo will hope he can rediscover the form that saw him rated as one of the best defenders on the planet a couple of years ago.
Araujo can play right-back too – 26% of his minutes came there last season for Barça – which could come in very handy given their issues last season saw Conor Bradley is probably still seen as the long-term solution there, he also has a poor fitness record. Like Leoni, it’s unknown how much longer the Northern Ireland international will be sidelined after suffering a bad knee injury against Arsenal in January.
Despite losing Andy Robertson this summer, Liverpool should be fine at left-back with Ryan Gravenberch and Stefan Bajcetic, but the Japan international perhaps isn’t of the required standard to play regularly, while the young Spaniard has missed so much football since his first-team breakthrough in 2022-23 that it’s unrealistic to think he’ll play a significant role under Iraola in the coming months.
Szoboszlai was one of the few who excelled last season, and his all-action style does seem ideally suited to the new head coach, though Florian Wirtz needs to show more than he did in his first season in England after his big-money move from Bayer Leverkusen last summer. His seven goals and eights assists in all competitions wasn’t a terrible return, but Liverpool fans will expect more after a bedding-in period. Iraola has been playing Wirtz as a 10 just behind Hugo Ekitiké.
The Frenchman did well in his debut season, scoring 17 goals in 45 games before suffering a ruptured Achilles in March, while injury and poor form kept Isak to just four goals in 22 outings.
Liverpool’s attack broadly failed to fire last season, in particular out wide. Mohamed Salah and Rio Ngumoha is likely to play a bigger part after producing two goals and one assist in 29 appearances (nine starts) last season, while Paris Saint-Germain star Bradley Barcola is reportedly being targeted, though the France international would likely play off the left if he is brought in for big money.
Iraola has said he expects all his wingers to be able to play both sides, but they surely need at least one who is a natural right winger.
Their only options on the right at the moment are Frimpong, who really is either a full-back or a wing-back, and Will Wright have filled in during pre-season.
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