Andoni Iraola is ready to turn again to one of last season’s most surprising solutions to one of this season’s most obvious problems.
Dominik Szoboszlai, Liverpool’s reigning player of the year and creative heartbeat, could once more find himself lining up at right-back as injuries and a thin full-back department squeeze Iraola’s options.
Szoboszlai, the reluctant right-back… who delivers
Szoboszlai’s numbers from last season still jump off the page: 25 goal contributions – 13 goals and 12 assists – in 53 appearances. Those are elite attacking returns for a midfielder. They look even more remarkable when you remember how often he was dragged away from his natural habitat and shunted to right-back.
Liverpool’s attempts to fix that imbalance late in the window fell flat. Jeremie Frimpong, exposed in the opening two games when asked to patrol that flank, highlighted the issue. A late move to raid Chelsea for cover was quickly shut down by the London club. No deal, no new right-back.
So the focus turns back inwards. To versatility. To Szoboszlai.
“I haven’t found any situation where a player has said he doesn’t want to play in a position,” Iraola said in his Thursday press conference, carefully choosing his words but leaving little doubt about the plan.
“We have discussions, but everyone wants to help. If we have to play Dom as a right winger, as a right-back or a midfielder, he wants to help the team first.
“We have some injuries now, and we need the versatility of the players, players like Dom. Even in the game, they have to change positions.”
The message is clear: roles are fluid, the needs of the team come first, and Szoboszlai is very much part of the solution.
No new full-back, no complaints
Liverpool’s summer business ended with £123m man Bradley Barcola as the headline arrival, and no specialist reinforcement at full-back. For some managers, that would be a point of tension. Iraola, at least in public, is not biting.
“I’m very happy with the signings we made,” he insisted. “Do I want more signings? At the end, the club has decided those signings we have done are the ones that will improve our team.
“There were other options we decided not to take for different reasons, sometimes sporting or economic; the deal didn’t make sense in the market. But I’m happy now.
“We have a lot of quality in the team. The moment is for the players to give it all they have.”
He knows where the squad is lightest. He also knows he has to live with it.
“The challenge in the squad now is we don’t have Conor [Bradley] there at right-back. That’s why I value Dom at right-back, as he can play there.
“Versatility in the player helps us go through the moments when we have injuries.
“In midfield we have good numbers. Now it’s a matter of getting the right calls from myself.”
That last line hangs in the air. Selection, shape, risk. Does he sacrifice Szoboszlai’s influence higher up the pitch to plug the gap behind him? Or gamble on makeshift cover and keep his most productive player where he can hurt teams?
For now, Iraola sounds like a coach preparing supporters for what’s coming.
A squad stretched, and a manager juggling
Liverpool are already leaning on “square pegs in round holes,” as the injury list grows and the schedule thickens. Iraola knows this run of games will test not just his squad depth, but his imagination.
“I’m finding now the best combinations, and we are going through a period now where we will play a lot of games, and we’ll have a chance to see the options we have and the combinations we have. It’s a matter of coaching.”
He will be judged on those combinations. On whether he can turn a patched-up back line and a reshuffled midfield into a functioning, winning team.
The one piece of encouragement is that help is on the way, if not immediately.
“The closest one [to playing again] is Joe [Gomez]. He will start training with us next week,” Iraola revealed.
“Next one is [Giovanni] Leoni; he could be training during the break with the group. Conor [Bradley] is next, and, especially Hugo, longer.”
Gomez’s return will offer defensive flexibility. Bradley’s comeback will finally give Liverpool a natural right-back again. Until then, Iraola is left leaning on adaptability, on attitude, and on a star midfielder who might once more be asked to start attacks and stop them from the same flank.
If Szoboszlai thrives again in that uncomfortable role, Liverpool’s season looks very different. If he doesn’t, the cost of a quiet summer at full-back could be brutally exposed.
