Liverpool's Summer Focus: A Title Push Through Midfield
Liverpool’s summer is supposed to be about one thing: getting back to the top of English football.
They are not built to linger on the fringes of title races or talk about “transition seasons.” Not at Anfield. Not with that stadium, that support, that history. When Liverpool don’t compete for the Premier League, alarm bells ring.
Last season, they rang loudly.
Arne Slot’s overhaul never truly settled. The idea was bold, the execution far less convincing. The system shifted, the roles changed, and two of Liverpool’s biggest attacking weapons – Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo – found themselves blunted. Their strengths were not properly used, their output dipped, and both endured some of their poorest campaigns in a Liverpool shirt.
Now Salah has gone, Slot has followed him out of the picture, and Andoni Iraola stands at the front of the new era. The reset is real this time. And it has to be ruthless.
Liverpool need more than a fresh voice in the dugout. They need reinforcements.
A title push that runs through midfield
The heart of the issue sits in midfield.
On paper, a trio of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch looks modern, technical, and dynamic. On grass, across the 2025-26 season, only Szoboszlai consistently hit the level expected of a Liverpool starter. He carried his weight. The others flickered rather than burned.
No surprise, then, that almost every serious link around Liverpool this summer circles back to the middle of the pitch. The club know it. Rivals know it. Agents know it.
One name refuses to go away: Eduardo Camavinga.
The Frenchman is one of Real Madrid’s great tactical chameleons. He has played as a holding midfielder, as an energetic No. 8, as a left-sided shuttler, even as an emergency left-back. Yet despite that versatility, he is not the first name on the teamsheet at the Bernabéu. With Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde forming a powerful core, Camavinga’s minutes have not always reflected his talent or his status.
That imbalance has fuelled a steady stream of rumours. And now a strange, delicate chain of events has emerged – one that, remarkably, runs straight through Manchester City.
The Rodri domino Liverpool are watching
According to a fresh update from Ekrem Konur, the situation is simple to describe and complicated to pull off.
Chelsea have made approaches for Camavinga. He has turned them down. He does not want to leave Real Madrid and has rejected all interest so far.
The equation changes if Real Madrid land Rodri.
Konur reports that if the Spanish champions manage to sign the Manchester City midfielder this summer, a Camavinga departure “could become possible,” with the club considering scenarios in which he is among the players who could be sold.
In other words, for Liverpool to have a realistic shot at Camavinga, their most relentless domestic rival may have to sell their midfield general to the European champions.
It is a scenario that feels almost absurd on the surface. Manchester City voluntarily strengthening Real Madrid, and indirectly opening a door for Liverpool to strengthen as well? Yet this is the transfer market at the elite level: tangled, opportunistic, and sometimes dependent on a single domino falling in another country.
Liverpool can only wait, watch, and be ready.
Why Camavinga fits the new Liverpool
If the door does open, Camavinga is exactly the kind of signing that could reshape Liverpool’s midfield for the next decade.
Ryan Gravenberch may yet become one of the Premier League’s standout defensive midfielders – his trajectory in the 2024-25 campaign hinted at that potential – but last season he fell short of that billing. He was inconsistent, and in the middle of those struggles, questions were asked of the club’s decision-making.
Supporters looked at Tyler Morton thriving at Lyon, rapidly becoming one of their most important players, and wondered why the homegrown midfielder had been allowed to leave. Stefan Bajcetic and James McConnell remain internal options, promising and capable of stepping in, but they are not yet the kind of sure-fire, elite-level anchors a title-chasing side can lean on week after week.
Liverpool want to compete for silverware on multiple fronts. That demands at least two top-class options in every key role, especially at the base of midfield. When injuries strike – and they always do – the drop-off cannot be severe enough to derail a season.
Among the long list of defensive and central midfielders linked with the club in recent years, Camavinga stands out.
He is 23. He has already played at the highest level for club and country. He can sit deep, recycle possession and shield a back line. He can surge forward, press, and carry the ball through the thirds. He has operated in almost every zone of the pitch, adapting to whatever his coach has needed.
That blend of youth, experience, and tactical flexibility is rare. For a coach like Iraola, who demands intensity, structure, and fluidity all at once, it is gold.
The challenge is obvious: Camavinga does not currently want to leave Real Madrid. The Spanish giants do not need to sell. The entire possibility hinges on Madrid going all in for Rodri and Manchester City being willing to cash in on the player who has been the metronome of their era.
If that happens, Liverpool must be ready to move with precision and conviction.
Because if they can prise Camavinga away from the Bernabéu, it would not just be a clever signing. It would be a statement that the new Liverpool under Iraola is not content with merely returning to respectability.
They would be arming themselves for another sustained assault on the Premier League crown – and this time, with a midfield built to last.
