Liverpool's Major Rebuild Under Andoni Iraola: Seven Signings Needed
Liverpool face what amounts to a full-scale rebuild under Andoni Iraola, with the new head coach warned he may need as many as seven signings to steady a squad creaking in several key areas.
The former Bournemouth manager has signed a two-year deal to replace Arne Slot and walks into a club still reeling from a limp defence of their 20th Premier League title and the departures of cornerstone figures. Mohamed Salah has gone. Andy Robertson is on his way. More could follow.
Inside Anfield, the scale of the job is becoming clear. According to Football Insider, senior figures believe Liverpool “should complete seven new signings” this summer, with Iraola confronting what have been described as “major issues” that must be addressed before next season kicks off.
Holes everywhere you look
The problems start at the back and run right through the team.
Alisson Becker, long viewed as untouchable, is no longer guaranteed to stay. Liverpool have already blocked a move to Juventus, but the Brazilian is due for talks with the club’s hierarchy over his future, and his potential exit looms large over the summer plan.
A Football Insider source painted a stark picture of the depth chart.
“Iraola is going to face some major issues immediately,” the source said. “We were expecting his arrival to be announced, so he will already have assessed his squad, and he will know there are problems there.
“I would say there are probably six or seven positions with players already in need of replacing.”
Run through the list and the concerns multiply.
Robertson is going. Ibrahima Konaté is also heading for the exit. Virgil van Dijk, the defensive pillar of the Klopp era, is 34 and no longer the long-term solution. There is a clear need for a right-back. That is the back line, once Liverpool’s great strength, suddenly stripped of certainty.
The pressure doesn’t ease further forward. Salah, the club’s defining attacker of the last decade, has already departed. Hugo Ekitike, expected to play a bigger role, is out injured until next year. Two attacking positions need attention before Iraola can even think about fine-tuning.
No wonder the call is for volume as well as quality in the market.
Diomande, wide men and a new spine
Liverpool’s recruitment team know the scale of what is required. The club are understood to be targeting at least two wingers in this window, aware that replacing Salah’s output and threat cannot fall on a single signing.
Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig has emerged as a leading target to help fill that void. Liverpool are exploring a possible swap deal involving an underperforming player to bring in the 20-year-old, whose profile fits the club’s preference for high-ceiling, attacking talent.
But wide areas are only part of the story.
The plan stretches across the pitch: a right-back to refresh a position that has drifted; a centre-back or two to future-proof a defence losing Robertson and Konaté and carrying an ageing Van Dijk; and at least one central midfielder to keep the team’s engine room from stalling.
“Look through the team one by one,” the Football Insider source said. “Alisson could be leaving, we know Robertson and Konate are going, Van Dijk is 34 and ageing now, and they need a right-back.
“Further up the pitch, Salah has gone, and Ekitike is out until next year with this injury, so there’s another two players needing to be replaced.
“Already, that’s multiple key positions that need dealing with, and the manager will know that better than anybody, he will be prepared.”
Backing or bust
The question now is not whether Iraola recognises the scale of the surgery. It is how far Liverpool are willing to go to fund it.
“It’s now about whether he will get that backing, and I expect he will, to make the changes that need to be made,” the source added. “Ultimately, the goal for Iraola at Liverpool is going to be to make them successful again, but to do that, he’s going to need a lot of support.”
Seven signings is an enormous number for any elite club, let alone one trying to stay in the slipstream of Manchester City and Arsenal. But with leaders leaving, contracts ticking down and age catching up with key figures, the alternative is standing still while the rest of the league sprints away.
Iraola has his philosophy, his ideas, his reputation for aggressive, front-foot football. What he does not yet have is a squad built in his image.
Liverpool’s summer will decide how quickly that changes – and how long their new head coach gets before this rebuild is judged.
