Liverpool's Summer Transfer Dilemmas: Right Wing and Right-Back Questions
Less than a month to go. The clock is ticking in the United States, where Andoni Iraola is putting Liverpool through their paces on his first pre-season tour. Back home, the mood is very different: curiosity, anxiety, and no small amount of impatience as supporters look at a squad stripped of long-serving pillars and wonder what comes next.
Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Ibrahima Konaté. All gone, all for nothing in terms of fees, all leaving sizeable holes in a dressing room and a team-sheet. Others could yet follow. For Iraola and the club’s hierarchy, the margins for error this summer feel thin.
So what are Liverpool actually doing? The questions from supporters are sharp. The answers, for now, are complicated.
Bajcetic at Right-Back? Not Any Time Soon
The idea is tempting on paper: Stefan Bajcetic, elegant on the ball, tactically astute, maybe repurposed as a right-back in a squad short of obvious options.
Reality bites.
He has played there for Liverpool, but you have to go back to September 2023 for that experiment, and it did not convince. Not the player, not the coaches, not anyone watching closely.
For Bajcetic, this season is not about reinvention. It is about survival and rhythm. Getting fit, staying fit, and stacking minutes at senior level, even if that means another loan. Only once he has a body that can withstand the grind will any conversation about positional tweaks become remotely serious.
Right now, the notion of him emerging as a right-back solution for Iraola is distant. The priority is that he simply becomes a reliable option again in any role.
Life After Salah: Liverpool Search for a New Right Wing Reference
You don’t replace Mohamed Salah. You try to build something different.
Liverpool have at least shown they are prepared to spend in that area. An £86m move for RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande was on the table, but the German club refused to sell at that figure and the player himself appears to have eyes on Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG’s own Bradley Barcola is on Liverpool’s shortlist, but his price is already north of £100m. That’s the going rate for young, elite wide talent with years ahead of them and no pressure to move.
The scouting net has gone wider. Brighton’s Yanbuka Minteh, Köln’s Said El Mala and Lille’s Matias Fernandez-Pardo have all come under serious consideration. There was also an enquiry earlier in the window about Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche. None of them have moved yet, which keeps doors open and negotiations alive.
Liverpool are clearly doing their homework. The pattern is interesting: young, technically sharp, high-ceiling wingers, each with different profiles but all capable of operating on the right. And there’s always the possibility of a left-field pick emerging from deeper in the data and scouting reports, a player not yet splashed across headlines.
What isn’t in doubt is the need. Iraola has been blunt: a new right-winger is not a luxury. It’s imperative.
Centre-Forward: Isak Needs Help, One Way or Another
The centre-forward question is more delicate. Right now, Alexander Isak stands as the only established option through the middle, and he is not a striker who plays 50 games a season without interruption. His record suggests otherwise. Minor injuries, niggles, enforced rests – all of it adds up.
Liverpool want a right-winger first, but the long-term injury to Hugo Ekitike and the desire not to overload Isak opens the door to another forward arriving if the market allows.
If that doesn’t materialise, Iraola will have to improvise from within. Cody Gakpo can again be pushed into the No.9 role when required, even if it doesn’t always look natural. Florian Wirtz could be used as a false nine, pulling defenders out and opening lanes for runners. Federico Chiesa is another candidate to operate centrally in spells.
None of those options fully convinced in that role last season. They are solutions, not answers.
Behind them, the Academy waits. When fit, Jayden Danns is ahead of Will Wright in the pecking order and could be asked to cover minutes in certain competitions. But leaning heavily on teenagers in a title-chasing season is a risk very few elite clubs are willing to take.
Liverpool either find support for Isak in the market or they walk a tightrope with what they already have.
Richard Hughes: Short-Term Architect, Long-Term Uncertainty
While Iraola reshapes his squad, another significant figure looks set to move on once the window shuts.
There is a growing expectation that Richard Hughes will leave his role as sporting director at the end of the summer window, with Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal the most likely destination. It would be another sharp turn in a department that has already seen plenty of change in recent years.
As for a replacement, there is no clear succession plan in public view. Liverpool could look internally. Julian Ward, now technical director for Fenway Sports Group, has previously held the sporting director role at Anfield and remains a credible option if the club opt for continuity and familiarity.
But there has been no firm indication yet of a new appointment being lined up. For a club that has prided itself on long-term planning and joined-up thinking, the prospect of another reset in such a key position is a storyline that will not go away.
Kids on Tour: Who’s Really Close?
The pre-season tour in the United States has a familiar subplot: a cluster of Academy players stepping into the limelight, training with the senior squad, and trying to make an impression on a new head coach.
Many of them have already felt senior football in some form. James McConnell, Lewis Koumas, Calum Scanlon, Luke Chambers and Harvey Davies all have loan experience behind them and are likely to head back out again to keep that development curve rising.
The name generating the most excitement is Josh Abe. At 16, the winger has already created a real buzz, his talent obvious even in short bursts. But Liverpool will not rush him. A season of heavy involvement in Premier League 2 with the under-21s and outings in the UEFA Youth League for the U19s might be the smarter path.
So who is closest to genuine first-team involvement? Will Wright and Kieran Morrison look the likeliest to break into the domestic cup squads. Morrison, 19, signed a new deal in the summer and already has two senior appearances to his name, which puts him firmly on Iraola’s radar for the League Cup in September.
New signing Ifeanyi Ndukwe, an 18-year-old centre-back, will also have a chance to impress on tour. Perform well in the States, and the pathway to more serious involvement becomes much clearer.
Right-Back Headache: Why Djed Spence Isn’t the Answer
Right-back is where Liverpool’s squad planning feels most fragile.
Iraola has been clear that Conor Bradley is his first choice, but the Northern Ireland international is still months away from returning. Jeremie Frimpong sits next in line, a thrilling outlet going forward but less convincing defensively and already showing a tendency to pick up knocks since his arrival last summer.
Last season, Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo all filled in on the right when needed. None of them are natural right-backs. Gomez is likely needed at centre-back in the short term. Endo is not yet fully fit. Jones and Szoboszlai are midfielders by trade and by instinct.
The ideal solution? Either a centre-back who can comfortably operate at right-back, giving Iraola flexibility in his defensive shape, or a specialist right-back on a season-long loan. Liverpool do not want to invest heavily in a player they know will drop down the pecking order once Bradley is fully fit and firing. Then again, Bradley’s patchy injury record as a professional is a factor that cannot be ignored in long-term planning.
This is where Djed Spence comes into the conversation for some supporters. But not for Liverpool.
He doesn’t fit the profile they need. He is not a versatile centre-back/right-back hybrid, and he would be expensive. Very expensive. For a club that has been burned before, the idea of paying a premium for a player whose reputation surged off the back of a short, high-profile spell – especially at a World Cup – is one they are keen to avoid.
The message is blunt: clubs should never buy on the back of a good tournament alone. Liverpool are not about to break that rule for Spence.
The tour in America will offer Iraola more clues. Who can adapt? Who can be trusted? Who needs to go and play elsewhere? The transfer window will answer the rest.
The bigger question is whether Liverpool can turn this summer of upheaval into the foundation of a new era, or whether the gaps left by Salah, Robertson and Konaté will still be visible when the real football starts.
