Liverpool Target Fikayo Tomori as Defensive Crisis Deepens
Andoni Iraola’s first pre-season at Liverpool was never going to be gentle, but it has already turned awkward and exposed. On the pitch, Joe Gomez’s injury has ripped a hole straight through the heart of his defence. Off it, Curtis Jones’ public clash with Dominik Szoboszlai has stirred up talk that the academy midfielder could be edging towards the door.
The noise around Jones may grab the headlines, but it’s the back line that is keeping people at Anfield awake.
Gomez, 29, is expected to be out beyond the start of the season. That single absence has left Liverpool frighteningly light in central defence: just three senior centre-backs, two of them being Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni. Both are talented, both are untested at this level. Neither has started a Premier League game.
For a club that wants to hit the ground running under a new manager, that is a gamble verging on reckless.
So Liverpool have gone shopping.
Tomori back on the Premier League radar
In their urgent search, one name has surged to the top of the list: Fikayo Tomori.
The former Chelsea defender, now at AC Milan, is being heavily linked with a move away from San Siro. According to TuttoJuve, relayed by Sport Witness, Liverpool have already made contact with Milan to explore a deal. Tomori has just one year left on his contract and has slipped out of favour under Ruben Amorim, a combination that makes him a rare commodity in this market: a proven defender who might actually be attainable at a reasonable fee.
Liverpool are understood to be weighing up whether to turn that interest into a formal bid. The need is obvious. The clock is ticking.
With Gomez sidelined for the start of the Premier League campaign, Tomori’s arrival would plug a glaring gap. He knows English football, he knows the tempo, and at 26 he would arrive with his prime years still ahead of him. For Iraola, trying to install an aggressive, front-foot style, a defender with Tomori’s mobility and recovery pace would be more than a luxury. It would be a stabiliser.
Not just about Barcola
Recent chatter around Liverpool’s window has largely circled Bradley Barcola and the attacking reshuffle. Yet the move for Tomori carries at least as much weight. Goals win games, but a flimsy centre-back group can wreck a season before it finds rhythm.
This is where Tomori’s situation becomes intriguing. Having already turned down Coventry City, he has waited for the right offer. A return to the Premier League with Liverpool is a very different proposition: Anfield, title expectations, Champions League ambitions. It is the kind of stage he left England to earn, and now it may be calling him back.
Liverpool, short on experience at the back and staring at a brutal opening stretch under a new coach, cannot afford many more missteps. If they move decisively for Tomori, this could be the signing that decides whether Iraola’s first months are defined by promise — or by damage control.
