Liverpool Summer Review

A priority-by-priority opinion on Liverpool’s summer: the coaching change, replacing Salah and Konate, contract retention, succession planning, and where the right-back and midfield balance questions still look risky.

Liverpool Summer Review

Without any small talk or tedious introductions, let's get right into it. In this review I'm going to be breaking down the club's preparation for the 26/27 season, against what I perceived to be the main priorities. This is an opinion piece though, so do not expect to agree on every point in terms of where it fell in the list of priorities or how well we addressed it.

Priority 1:

There really is only one place to start in my opinion: with the Head Coach. The team was spiralling, lacking direction, lacking fitness and losing the crowd. Arne Slot simply had to go.

Several names were linked including (but not limited to) Xabi Alonso, Sebastien Hoeness and Steven Gerrard. In the end we appointed Andoni Iraola. He did a stellar job at Bournemouth despite losing his best players every summer. Honestly, the only objectively better choice was probably Luis Enrique.

One of the things that would've aided Iraola in the club's decision to select him is his track record of developing young players. Liverpool have spent several years hoovering up some of the best players in the 15–18 age range, so getting in a coach who is good at getting the best out of these players was vital.

Rating - 9/10

Priority 2:

Clearly the main gap in terms of playing staff was to replace Mo Salah. He's Liverpool's 3rd all-time top scorer and has been the first choice for us on the right wing since 2017.

It took quite a while to get it over the line, but at long last Bradley Barcola was signed for £106m + £17m in add-ons. It's the 3rd biggest signing in Premier League history.

Whilst not a direct replacement in terms of position, Iraola likes wingers who can play on both sides anyway, which Barcola can do very well. With that in mind, Barcola replaces Salah more in terms of quality, aura and star power. The attack needed a new sprinkling of magic, and we got that and then some. Short of signing Kvicha Kvaratskhelia or Lamine Yamal, I honestly don't think we could've signed a better winger. You've got to be some player to start regularly in the front 3 for PSG and France!

Rating - 9/10

Priority 3:

Next it was replacing Ibou Konate. When one of your first-choice centre backs departs, replacing them simply has to be a priority. Jeremy Jacquet was already secured from January, but he was more of an alternative to the failed pursuit of Marc Guehi last summer.

It came totally out of the blue in the end. Nobody saw Ronald Araujo coming, but the club has brought him in on a season-long loan with no fees, but a €55m option to buy. It is probably best described as a financially sensible signing.

What I would say is the surprising nature of the signing is probably an indicator that Araujo wasn't a target prior to Iraola taking the job. Araujo has had his problems with both physical and mental health, but if Iraola believes he can get him back to his best, we could have some player on our hands. This is by no means a guaranteed success though.

Rating - 7/10

Priority 4:

This is probably where things start getting a little bit subjective in terms of what was the next priority. For me, it was securing Szoboszlai to a new long-term contract.

Szoboszlai was our best player last season by far and he looks like a natural fit to be the next captain. Getting him tied down was a massive achievement, particularly in this period where teams like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona are repeatedly raiding Premier League teams for their star players (often by having them run down their contracts).

Szoboszlai has now been named as one of the leadership group by Iraola. It is often overlooked, but player retention during a transfer window is every bit as vital as recruitment.

10/10

Priority 5:

Next was adding a livewire in the frontline. I think a lot of fans perhaps undervalued the unpredictable nature of Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz. Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Rio Ngumoha took their places, but they were all just too delicate. It was one extreme to the other.

There were lots of players linked to us in this mould over the last 12 months. Antoine Semenyo was the popular choice. Anthony Gordon was an option that divided opinion. In the end, it was another signing out of the blue that was almost definitely the choice of Iraola. Victor Munoz was days (maybe even hours) away from joining Newcastle United when Liverpool hijacked the deal.

I think initially Liverpool fans were underwhelmed. It didn't help that he was late back to pre-season. That meant he was almost forgotten about because we didn't see anything of him. The way he's started the season and made an immediate impact on the right wing is very exciting though. Time will tell just how good he can be, but early signs are positive.

Rating - 7/10

Priority 6:

No doubt everyone reading has been waiting for this to come up. It is, of course, resolving the uncertainty at right back. With Connor Bradley injured and Jeremie Frimpong struggling to adapt, this was a real problem for us last season.

Six different players played at right back for Liverpool last season. Curtis Jones and Szoboszlai were probably the two who clocked up the most minutes there and it just didn't work at all. Neither of them track runners well enough and it ultimately just left us weaker in midfield.

For me, Jules Kounde absolutely should have been signed. He is an exceptional right back, but he's also a very solid centre back. I think he would've been a better signing than Araujo. I can only presume finances came into play though, as we have basically spent nothing on the right-back area. Araujo offers some level of comfort, but he's played less than 50 career games there.

Rating - 3/10

Priority 7:

Midfield balance. I think a lot of fans would've had this a lot higher on the list. I'm not going to dismiss that viewpoint either because it's clear to see we lack discipline and structure in midfield. The only reason I have this so low is because I strongly believe this is primarily a coaching issue (hence why I had a new Head Coach as Priority 1).

Despite that though, I still was really hoping we'd add Lamine Camara. Unfortunately, due to our non-homegrown situation, the only way this was going to work was if we sold Alexis Mac Allister. In the end, nobody came in for him and thus there was no space for Camara. I know people will say we should've sold Wataru Endo, but Endo has had to be left out of the Champions League squad due to the excess of foreign players at the club. Selling him would not have made the space required.

In the end, we've kind of struck oil whilst digging for gold. As disappointing as it is to not add Camara, Iraola has come out and said that the players who surprised him most when he came in were Trey Nyoni and Lewis Koumas. In a stroke of luck, that has given us competition for Ryan Gravenberch and Florian Wirtz in midfield without needing to sign anyone. It's a lot of pressure on two kids with a combined zero Premier League starts though!

Rating - 5/10

Priority 8:

Sorting out the goalkeeper situation had to be on here somewhere. There needed to be some sort of succession plan put in place. Though a long way down the list, at the start of the summer it really looked like Alisson Becker would go to Juventus and Freddie Woodman would be released.

This would have left us with only Giorgi Mamardashvili and Viteslav Jaros. I think we've seen by now that Mamardashvili is not the right keeper for Liverpool going forward. On top of that, Jaros hasn't played since he tore his ACL in February. There are significant doubts whether either of these players can be the long-term option as the number 1 keeper.

In the end we have retained Alisson, re-signed Woodman and, as an added bonus, we've also signed Lucca Brughmans for €35m. He is one of the highest-rated young goalkeepers in Europe. He will join the club next summer which also happens to be the same time Alisson's contract expires.

Rating - 8/10

Priority 9:

Another succession plan was also needed, and that was of course preparing for life without Virgil Van Dijk. The skipper's contract expires next summer. There have been a few tentative links to Murillo, Nico Schlotterbeck and Alessandro Bastoni. In reality, we were never going to sign one of these players whilst Van Dijk was still at the club.

Liverpool have seemingly gone down a different route. Ifeanyi Ndukwe was signed for €3m. Initially not much was thought of the signing by anyone. Why would it have been? However, Ndukwe ended up playing more minutes than any other player during the pre-season tour of the USA. He of course showed moments of inexperience, but he also stuck out like a sore thumb in terms of talent.

Due to work permit issues, Ndukwe will spend the season out on loan, but when he returns next summer, I think we can expect to see a lot more of him going forward. He really does look special. It's not the blockbuster name I think most of us would've liked and it's a huge burden for a young player to take on, but Arsenal did something very similar to this with William Saliba and that has gone extremely well for them. Only time will tell if Ndukwe is an adequate long-term succession plan.

Rating - 7/10

Summary:

Overall, it's been a pretty good transfer window. We've closed a £123m blockbuster deal, we've finally addressed the centre-back depth issue, and we've reinstalled a bit of raw chaos to the attack. We've also put in succession plans for Alisson and Van Dijk which will really spare us some stress next summer.

Unfortunately though, good is still far from perfect. The right-back situation still looks like a real risk. It could cost us in key moments in my opinion. Whilst there wasn't a lot the club could do to force Mac Allister to leave making space for Camara, it's still put a lot of pressure on Nyoni to come good this season in midfield.

I think what really tips the summer into being more good than bad is what happened before a transfer was even made: the appointment of Iraola. There is a lot to look forward to now and I hope people are patient whilst we transition into a new era.

I'd like to caveat this whole article with one thing though: we've done most of this in spite of Richard Hughes. The Global Talent Team headed up by Matt Newberry has done some serious heavy lifting to salvage this summer. As has Mike Gordon, who had to step in and finalise the Barcola deal. Thankfully, Hughes is off to Saudi Arabia now which, to be honest, is maybe the best thing to happen this whole summer!

Overall Rating - 7/10

Written by MK Scouser September 4 2026 09:57:44