Liverpool's Midfield Solution: Vitaly Janelt
Jurgen Klopp’s New Favourite Could Be the Man Liverpool Need
Ask any Liverpool supporter where this squad still feels light and the answer comes back quickly: midfield. Not goals, not full-backs, not centre-halves. The heart of the pitch.
Under Andoni Iraola, that area has become a problem Liverpool can’t quite solve. His football demands a ferocious press and calm control in the middle. At the moment, he has pieces that work on their own. Together? The jigsaw doesn’t quite fit.
A Midfield Built on Soloists, Not a Band
The issue isn’t a lack of talent. It’s the blend.
Dominik Szoboszlai is built for Iraola’s idea of football. He wants to chase, press, and snap at opponents, then surge forward when the ball is won. He’s the natural aggressor in a high-octane system. But to unlock that side of his game fully, he needs a partner who stays, who knits play from deep, who reads danger and tidies up.
Ryan Gravenberch is not that player. He wants to carry the ball, glide past opponents, drive into space. He’s a runner, not an anchor.
Alexis Mac Allister comes closer. He can drop in, take the ball off the centre-backs, and dictate. Yet even he isn’t the pure, natural sitter this system cries out for. He can do the job, but it doesn’t always play to his strengths.
In an ideal world, Trey Nyoni grows into that role. He has the profile, the calmness, the promise. The question is timing. Throwing him in too early, in a side still learning Iraola’s demands, risks stunting his development instead of accelerating it.
So Liverpool need something else. Not a blockbuster signing that blocks the pathway. A bridge.
Enter Vitaly Janelt
Jurgen Klopp has just named his first Germany senior squad. Among the headline names, one inclusion stood out: Vitaly Janelt.
The Brentford midfielder has finally been called up to the national team, and the numbers back up why. This season, he has covered the third-most distance in the Premier League at 58.8 km. Off the ball, he ranks fifth for interceptions, with 3.20 per 90 minutes.
That is not a luxury midfielder. That is a worker, a reader of danger, a player who thrives in chaos and imposes order on it.
He fits a high-intensity game like a glove. That’s why Klopp has turned to him. It’s also why he makes so much sense for Liverpool under Iraola.
Janelt can sit without disappearing. He can press without losing structure. He links play, screens the defence, and still has the engine to step up and engage. He doesn’t need the spotlight; he just keeps the machine running.
At 28, he’s in his prime. Old enough to carry responsibility, young enough to maintain the physical output Iraola’s style demands. Crucially, he would not slam the door on Nyoni. He would buy the teenager time: a season or two to grow, to learn, to adapt, rather than being hurled into a role that can define – or derail – a career.
Janelt wouldn’t arrive as the star. He would arrive as the solution. And right now, that might be exactly what Liverpool’s midfield needs.
