Liverpool 2026-27 Squad Audit: Where Andoni Iraola Still Needs Reinforcements

With less than two weeks to go until the start of the 2026-27 Premier League season, Liverpool still look short in certain areas. What else do the Reds need to do before the close of the summer transfer window?

As title defences go, it wasn’t the best.

Liverpool invested heavily in their squad last summer, looking to build from a position of strength after winning the 2024-25 Premier League title, but football is rarely that simple. New arrivals struggling to settle, several players unable to stay fit, and head coach Arne Slot falling out with star player Mohamed Salah all didn’t help matters.

Ultimately, a fifth-place finish and Champions League qualification was actually pretty good considering they conceded 53 goals and lost 12 games in the league, but it wasn’t enough to keep Slot in post just 12 months after lifting the title.

Andoni Iraola has been brought in after three impressive years at Bournemouth, looking to bring a high-energy style back to Liverpool, but does he have the players to do so?

There have been flashes of it in pre-season, but their last two friendlies against Leeds United and Monaco have both seen them lose despite going 2-0 ahead early on.

Those inconsistent performances suggest that while the first XI is strong, there is perhaps not enough beneath that. Injuries and late World Cup returns haven’t helped, but neither has a lack of incomings in the transfer market. Víctor Muñoz’s second-half cameo against Monaco on Sunday was the first appearance by a new signing in pre-season.

Jérémy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo have also come in to boost the defence, but it feels like more needs to be done in the last three weeks of the transfer window to give Iraola the tools to work with.

That could be tricky given Araujo makes it 17 non-homegrown players – players who were not trained in England for a minimum of three years before turning 21 – the maximum allowed. To register any more, they would need to lose one.

So, what areas require attention? This is our Liverpool squad audit ahead of 2026-27.

Goalkeeper and Defence

Nothing is needed in goal, with Alisson Becker staying for what is the final year of his current contract, despite links to Juventus earlier this summer, while Giorgi Mamardashvili will continue to deputise. Freddie Woodman signed a new deal a few weeks ago as a steady and homegrown third choice.

There was a need to do something at centre-back after Ibrahima Konaté left on a free transfer to Real Madrid at the end of the season. Jacquet was signed from Rennes in January ahead of arriving this summer, but he’s only recently turned 21, and it would be a big ask to immediately make him Virgil van Dijk’s regular partner, especially considering he has spent several months out with a shoulder injury.

Liverpool had four senior options in Van Dijk, Jacquet, Joe Gomez and Giovanni Leoni, but Van Dijk is 35 and played 55 games for the club last season, as well as featuring for the Netherlands at the World Cup. He surely needs to be rested at some point.

Jacquet has recovered from that shoulder injury, but still hasn’t featured in pre-season after sustaining a supposedly minor knee issue in training. Gomez is sidelined for the next few weeks, going off just minutes into the first pre-season friendly this summer with a muscle issue, and teenager Leoni’s return date is still up in the air after suffering an ACL injury on his debut last September.

Ifeanyi Ndukwe has impressed in pre-season, but the 18-year-old Austrian has been unable to get a work permit, so will need to be loaned out.

Liverpool have moved to address the issue, though, with Araujo coming in on a season-long loan from Barcelona. The Uruguayan will presumably be Van Dijk’s main partner given he has reportedly agreed to the move due to being told by Hansi Flick that he wouldn’t be getting regular starts for his team. After falling out of favour following some high-profile errors last season, Araujo will hope he can rediscover the form that saw him rated as one of the best defenders on the planet a couple of years ago.

Araujo can play right-back too – 26% of his minutes came there last season for Barça – which could come in very handy given their issues last season saw Dominik Szoboszlai having to fill in fairly regularly.

Iraola could perhaps still do with a specialist right-back, though. Jeremie Frimpong struggled to lock that position down last season thanks to persistent injuries, and while Conor Bradley is probably still seen as the long-term solution there, he also has a poor fitness record. Like Leoni, it’s unknown how much longer the Northern Ireland international will be sidelined after suffering a bad knee injury against Arsenal in January.

Despite losing Andy Robertson this summer, Liverpool should be fine at left-back with Milos Kerkez and Kostas Tsimikas. There remain questions about if the latter is good enough but he was Liverpool’s back-up left-back in the 2024-25 season when they won the title, and he played his part with 18 appearances in the league that campaign, starting nine games.

Midfield

Numbers-wise, Liverpool don’t look bad in midfield. Profile-wise, perhaps they could do with more.

Liverpool’s middle was far too easy to play through last season, not helped by the poor overall shape of the team and lack of pressing from the front, but that openness was on show again in recent friendly defeats to Leeds and Monaco.

Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister were sensational when Liverpool won the title in 2024-25, but both were well off those levels last term. Iraola often had a double pivot of a cultured player and a ‘destroyer’ at Bournemouth, so he may want someone of the latter mould at Anfield as well.

The fact they didn’t rival Brentford for the signing of impressive defensive midfielder Mamadou Sangaré from Lens perhaps indicated that it’s not an area the club are too concerned about, though. Wataru Endo is fit again, as is Stefan Bajcetic, but the Japan international perhaps isn’t of the required standard to play regularly, while the young Spaniard has missed so much football since his first-team breakthrough in 2022-23 that it’s unrealistic to think he’ll play a significant role under Iraola in the coming months.

Szoboszlai was one of the few who excelled last season, and his all-action style does seem ideally suited to the new head coach, though Curtis Jones could leave in the next few weeks, with Inter strongly linked. The 25-year-old is in the last year of his contract and didn’t feature on Sunday due to an apparent hip issue.

Trey Nyoni could step into his spot, with the 19-year-old impressing in pre-season. Nyoni is comfortable in possession and likes to get the ball forward as quickly as possible, which Iraola will like.

Mac Allister has just two years left on his deal and, as mentioned, had an underwhelming campaign last season. Reports suggest the club would be willing to sell if a big offer arrives, in which case a replacement would have to be sourced. Iraola did recently indicate he wants the Argentine to stay, though.

Further up the pitch, Florian Wirtz needs to show more than he did in his first season in England after his big-money move from Bayer Leverkusen last summer. His seven goals and eights assists in all competitions wasn’t a terrible return, but Liverpool fans will expect more after a bedding-in period. Iraola has been playing Wirtz as a 10 just behind Alexander Isak in pre-season and it has looked promising.

Harvey Elliott needs to rebuild his confidence and reputation after an uneventful loan at Aston Villa last season, and staying as back-up to Wirtz makes a lot of sense.

Attack

The area that probably needs most attention is the forward line, which seems a bit odd when you think Liverpool spent around £200 million on two new strikers last summer in Isak and Hugo Ekitiké.

The Frenchman did well in his debut season, scoring 17 goals in 45 games before suffering a ruptured Achilles in March, while injury and poor form kept Isak to just four goals in 22 outings.

Liverpool’s attack broadly failed to fire last season, in particular out wide. Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo scored 52 goals between them in 2024-25 but managed just 21 in 2025-26. Salah has gone and Gakpo is being linked with a move to Tottenham, so they may need to entirely freshen things up anyway.

Víctor Muñoz has arrived from Osasuna, and although he looks like a promising and versatile addition, the Spain international did only score seven times for the La Liga side last season.

Seventeen-year-old winger Rio Ngumoha is likely to play a bigger part after producing two goals and one assist in 29 appearances (nine starts) last season, while Paris Saint-Germain star Bradley Barcola is reportedly being targeted, though the France international would likely play off the left if he is brought in for big money.

Iraola has said he expects all his wingers to be able to play both sides, but they surely need at least one who is a natural right winger.

Their only options on the right at the moment are Frimpong, who really is either a full-back or a wing-back, and Federico Chiesa, who hasn’t been convincing since his early form last season, and is another who could possibly leave in this window. Lewis Koumas started there against Monaco on Sunday, but while the former Hull City loanee has seemingly caught Iraola’s eye, he would surely be a squad player at best.

Another PSG winger, Ibrahim Mbaye, is being linked, though he’s just 18 years old, so it would be a gamble.

There is also an argument to do something up front. Isak is now fully fit and has been looking sharp in pre-season, but given his injury woes last season, it would be a fool’s errand to rely on him entirely. Ekitiké is out for a few more months, and it would be a surprise to see him again before 2027, so Isak needs back-up in the meantime.

Chiesa didn’t convince there last season, while youngsters Koumas and Will Wright have filled in during pre-season. Jayden Danns would have been an ideal candidate given the promise he showed when he was given chances by former boss Jürgen Klopp a couple of seasons ago, but he’s another who has suffered horrendously bad luck with injuries since.

Handing a multi-year permanent contract to a striker who would become third in the pecking order on Ekitiké’s return would make little sense, so a loan move for an experienced option might be the way to go.

Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes should be a busy man between now and September, otherwise Iraola will have to produce similar miracles to that of his predecessor Slot in his first season on Merseyside.

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