Jamie Carragher has delivered a blistering verdict on Liverpool left-back Milos Kerkez, branding him the “Darwin Núñez of full-backs” and questioning whether the club have badly misread one of the most important positions on the pitch.
The 20-year-old has started Liverpool’s first two Premier League games of the season under Andoni Iraola, both chaotic 2-2 draws against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest. Two points from six, four goals conceded, and a back line already under siege. Kerkez and fellow full-back Jeremie Frimpong have found themselves at the heart of the storm.
Carragher’s cutting comparison
On The Overlap, Carragher did not soften the edges of his assessment. He went straight for Kerkez’s game intelligence and composure, suggesting Liverpool’s £40 million investment is, at this stage, more raw chaos than refined quality.
“Their understanding of the game is really, really poor. You’re watching the game and thinking, ‘Why has he done that?’”
Carragher said, grouping Kerkez’s decision-making with wider concerns over Liverpool’s full-back play.
He then revisited a label he’d already attached to the Hungarian last season.
“I described Kerkez last season – and it was his first season, maybe it was a bit harsh at the time – he’s the Darwin Nunez of full-backs. It’s just like ‘head down and run’, everything Kerkez does is 100 miles an hour.”
It’s a comparison that cuts in two directions. Núñez is electric, unpredictable, capable of brilliance and bedlam in the same move. To apply that to a defender is far less flattering. At full-back, chaos usually ends with the ball in your own net.
Carragher’s issue isn’t just pace over poise. It’s the sense that Kerkez leans almost entirely on his physical gifts, with positioning and timing lagging behind. For a side trying to re-establish itself as a title contender, that imbalance looks brutally exposed.
The left-back gamble
Liverpool’s handling of the position only deepens the scrutiny. Kerkez arrived for £40m and endured a mixed first season. Not a disaster, not a revelation. A project player in a high-pressure role.
Carragher outlined the club’s apparent internal logic: Iraola had worked with Kerkez at Bournemouth, Andy Robertson has moved on, another left-back has gone out on loan. The conclusion? Back the youngster.
“They’ve brought in Kerkez for £40million. He’s had his first season, it wasn’t amazing, but right, you go: ‘OK, Iraola’s come in from Bournemouth, he knows him, he’s still our left-back. Andy Robertson moved on, we had another left-back on loan, so we’re probably not going to spend another £40million on another. He’s our left-back, let him have another year’.”
The problem is that “another year” at Liverpool is not a quiet laboratory season. It’s a campaign played under floodlights, with every positional error replayed from five angles and dissected by former defenders who won Champions Leagues in that shirt.
So far, the microscope has not been kind.
Spending big, looking thin
What grates with former pros is not just Kerkez’s form, but the broader recruitment picture. Liverpool spent aggressively in the summer, splashing £106m on Bradley Barcola and £55m on Jeremy Jacquet, plus four other signings. The attack and midfield were refreshed. The full-back areas were not.
For Gary Neville, that imbalance is baffling.
“The two full-backs, it was quite clear at the start of last season when you watched them for five or six matches, that defensively they weren’t going to be quite at the level to do it,” he said.
Neville’s point is simple: the warning signs were already flashing. Frimpong and Kerkez offered energy and attacking thrust, but their defensive flaws were visible long before this stuttering start.
“I’m stunned. We talk about ‘will Arsenal regret not bringing in a forward’ – will Liverpool regret not bringing in a couple of full-backs?”
That question now hangs over the early weeks of Iraola’s reign. Liverpool have chosen to double down on two high-risk, high-octane full-backs in a league that punishes defensive looseness without mercy.
Kerkez, for his part, finds himself in a brutal spotlight. Every overlapping run, every mistimed press, every lapse at the back post will be measured against a £40m fee, a manager’s faith, and a pundit’s stinging nickname.
If he settles, grows, and sharpens the defensive side of his game, this storm will fade into the background noise of a young defender’s education. If he doesn’t, Liverpool’s decision to ignore their full-back problems in a lavish summer window will look less like a gamble and more like a glaring, avoidable mistake.
