Liverpool's Left-Back Dilemma: Kerkez Under Pressure
Liverpool’s summer of change already feels incomplete.
Four new faces arrived, including Ronald Araujo and Bradley Barcola, yet for a club coming off one of their bleakest seasons in recent memory under Arne Slot, the squad still looks oddly familiar – and worryingly fragile in key areas.
Andoni Iraola’s appointment promises a different energy, a sharper edge. But Wednesday night’s 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid underlined a blunt truth: this Liverpool team is still carrying too much of last season’s damage, and nowhere is that more obvious than at left-back.
Kerkez under the spotlight
Liverpool threw more than £450 million at their problems last summer. Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz were paraded as the crown jewels of a new era, yet the project never found its shape. The team drifted. The identity blurred. A fifth-place finish in the Premier League told its own story: lots of money, very little direction.
Slot paid with his job, but his fingerprints remain on the squad. One of his key calls was Milos Kerkez. The Hungarian was signed as the long-term heir to Andy Robertson, the man meant to own that left flank for years.
It never really happened.
Even with Slot pushing for Kerkez as his first-choice option, Robertson kept winning starts simply by being better. More reliable, more consistent, more in tune with what the team needed. At times, Robertson’s form was so strong that sections of the fanbase wondered if Liverpool might even hand the Scot a new contract and kick the succession plan further down the road.
They didn’t. Instead, Kostas Tsimikas returned to Anfield as back-up and Kerkez was left as the man expected to grow into the role.
Then came Atletico.
A performance that changes the conversation
Against Diego Simeone’s side on Wednesday, Kerkez did not look like a player ready to anchor a title-chasing back four. He looked like a 22-year-old still learning the craft of defending at the very highest level – which is exactly what he is, but exactly what Liverpool can’t afford.
His display was erratic, positionally loose, and it cost Liverpool. Marcos Llorente escaped him for Atletico’s goal, a lapse that summed up the concern. In a back five or as an attacking wing-back, Kerkez offers plenty: energy, ambition, a constant willingness to drive forward. In a disciplined back four, with space to defend and details to get right, he still feels raw.
That’s the problem. Liverpool no longer have the margin for error they once enjoyed.
January already looms large
This squad still has too many gaps for a club with Liverpool’s ambitions. Several positions need upgrading, but left-back is quickly moving from “medium-term concern” to “urgent priority”.
Talk around future windows has already started. Ben Jacobs has even suggested Liverpool could look to replace Alexis Mac Allister in 2027, a sign of how far ahead the club are trying to plan. Yet the here and now is harder to ignore. If Kerkez continues to perform like he did against Atletico, patience will wear thin long before 2027 ever arrives.
Supporters have already seen enough of this movie: a squad with obvious weaknesses, rivals strengthening, and Liverpool telling themselves they can wait until the next window. If they try that again in January, they risk watching the season slip away.
Across the summer, Liverpool were linked with several left-backs. None arrived. By the time the winter window opens, the pressure to correct that decision will be intense.
Because right now, Kerkez looks like a decent wing-back, an interesting project, a player who might grow into the role. What he does not look like is the starting left-back of a side intent on hunting down the biggest prizes.
Liverpool need someone more experienced, more defensively assured, and ready to walk straight into a back four that cannot afford another year of experiments.
