Liverpool have just thrown another £200m-plus at the squad, a bigger net spend than last summer, and yet Andoni Iraola walks away from the window with a team that looks anything but complete.
The numbers say investment. The squad screams imbalance.
A lopsided attack after Salah
Jamie Carragher did not bother dressing it up on Sky Sports. "It does not look like a balanced squad," he said. "Liverpool are short in the full-back areas and probably a midfield player as well." One line that cut straight through the noise, even after the £123m arrival of Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain.
That deal goes right to the heart of the problem. Liverpool have lost Mohamed Salah, the best left-footed right-winger the Premier League has seen, and responded by stockpiling players who prefer the opposite flank. The right wing, once the most clearly defined role in this team, now looks like the biggest question mark.
"Liverpool have not got a real out-and-out right-sided attacker," Carragher added. "We have not got anybody with a left foot on that right side, like Mo Salah. I am disappointed. I am not quite sure what we are going to do on that right wing right now."
Barcola can operate across the front line, but a £123m signing tends to start in his best position, not as a tactical experiment. That is not on the right. Cody Gakpo has been stationed on the left so far. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike have both been used there as well.
Rio Ngumoha broke through on the left and has been tested on the opposite flank in pre-season. Victor Munoz, the one who looks most naturally suited to that right-sided berth, arrives on the back of a single top-flight season – as a left winger.
Taken individually, none of these moves is a disaster. Together, they form a pattern. One side of the attack overloaded, the other patched together. Curiosity rather than catastrophe, but with very real implications when you scan the rest of the pitch.
Full-backs at the heart of the storm
The gaps become even clearer at the back. When Jeremie Frimpong arrived last summer, Liverpool were at pains to insist he was not a replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back. Two games into this season, that is exactly where the Netherlands international has been deployed.
With Conor Bradley injured, Frimpong is the only true fit specialist in that role. Some argue Dominik Szoboszlai could fill in there, but that feels like a square peg solution in a system that demands so much from its full-backs. Shunting a centre-back wide would be an even bigger compromise.
Iraola’s blueprint makes that obvious. Frimpong and Milos Kerkez sit among the top three players in the Premier League for sprints so far. Above them? Adrien Truffert, the left-back Iraola worked with at Bournemouth. The pattern is not accidental. This is how his teams breathe.
Look at the average positions from Liverpool’s opening two league games and compare them to that title-winning campaign under Arne Slot. The full-backs push high, often at the same time, stretching the pitch and flooding the final third. That attacking ambition shifts huge responsibility onto the midfield.
And this is where the doubts sharpen.
Midfield caught in the crossfire
Ryan Gravenberch once rose to that challenge for Slot, covering ground and carrying the ball in a title-winning run. Now the question is whether Iraola has the legs, the profile, and the discipline in the middle of the pitch to protect such an aggressive structure.
Alexis Mac Allister’s reduced physical output over the past 18 months is no secret. He can dictate, he can create, but can he anchor a side that wants to engage high and recover the ball early? That is the tactical gamble Iraola is flirting with.
Is he even looking for a classic holding midfielder? At Bournemouth, he wanted his midfielders to step out, to squeeze, to suffocate. Alex Scott spoke about being "very aggressive" without the ball. Tyler Adams said the players believed they would win it back high up the pitch.
The signs of strain are already there. "I do not believe that midfield can function with the personnel in there," Carragher warned. "For me, it does not work. And it is not just about personnel, it is the structure the manager is asking for."
Within five minutes of the first Premier League game, Liverpool’s rest defence was laid bare. Full-backs high, centre-backs deep, a yawning gap in the middle. No midfielder in sight. Newcastle poured straight through it and scored.
Given the way Iraola wants his full-backs to play, and with Virgil van Dijk now more inclined to drop rather than step out, that is not a one-off glitch. It looks like a structural fault.
So here is the paradox: Liverpool have assembled the most expensive squad in their history – and yet it feels more obviously flawed than any side they have put together in a decade.
Compromise or chaos?
The transfer window is shut. If a solution exists, it has to come from within. That means trade-offs.
"You do not want to lose the offensive side, the fluidity, the arrivals with numbers, but obviously we were punished the other day, especially in the first goal," Carragher said, reflecting on the balance Liverpool are trying to strike.
"We did not do a proper lockdown. But there is a balance. We cannot go from one way where we send a lot of people forward to keeping everyone back so we do not arrive with numbers. I do not want to tell Ryan Gravenberch not to carry the ball or arrive in the box.
"It is a matter of identifying the situation. You cannot be with the joystick every time [controlling] the player. There are players that are very good at smelling the danger. 'I cannot risk going now. I think I have to stay.' Recognising those situations is the job."
For now, the evidence points to a side built for chaos: high-scoring draws, wild swings in momentum, thrilling attacks and alarming transitions. Liverpool look imbalanced, imperfect, and yet undeniably watchable.
The only real question is whether that volatility becomes their greatest weapon this season – or the flaw that tears their ambitions apart.
