Jamie Carragher Warns Liverpool's Midfield Isn't Ready for Title Challenge

Jamie Carragher has sounded the alarm over Liverpool’s midfield, warning that Andoni Iraola’s new-look side is nowhere near ready to mount a serious Premier League title challenge.

With the 2026/27 season just over a week away, Liverpool are trying to reset after a chaotic year that saw Arne Slot sacked and Champions League football secured only by scraping fifth place. The title win the year before already feels a long way off. Iraola has been hired to drag the club back towards that level. Carragher isn’t convinced the foundations are there.

Quiet window, loud warning

It has been a restrained summer at Anfield. Victor Munoz and Ronald Araujo are the only new arrivals so far, while Jeremy Jacquet is on his way after a deal with Rennes was tied up back in February. Liverpool are still hunting a replacement for Mohamed Salah out wide, with Bradley Barcola a leading target.

But for Carragher, the real problem sits in the middle of the pitch.

“The midfield issue for me is still a huge problem for Liverpool,” he said on the latest episode of The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet.

He’s seen enough in pre-season to worry. Liverpool’s last two friendlies, against Leeds and Monaco, offered a clearer glimpse of Iraola’s plans. What Carragher saw was something uncomfortably familiar.

“The problem Liverpool had last season was there was space everywhere in Liverpool’s midfield. That has not gone away at all.”

Too much running, not enough control

Iraola appears ready to use Dominik Szoboszlai deeper than many expected. Rather than operating as a classic No.10, the Hungary international has been lining up as a central midfielder alongside Ryan Gravenberch in what looks like a high-energy, box-to-box pairing.

“That’s only going to get bigger with the deployment of [Dominik] Szoboszlai in midfield – it looks like they’re going to play him, rather than as a number 10, almost as a central midfield player alongside [Ryan] Gravenberch and that is just pure box-to-box,” Carragher explained.

On paper, it sounds thrilling. On grass, Carragher sees a structural fault.

“I look at that midfield three and I worry about Liverpool. When you name six or seven of Liverpool’s players, you can’t say they’re not top players – you can’t say Gravenberch is not a really good player, or [Florian] Wirtz, or Szoboszlai.

“But as a midfield three, I look at that and think, oh no – there’s almost too much quality, but they all want to go and play and run. And even in pre-season, the space is coming through the middle.”

That space, the same yawning gap that undermined Slot’s team last season, is what Carragher believes will separate Liverpool from the very top again. High-class individuals, but a unit that doesn’t yet look capable of controlling games or protecting the defence over a 38-game campaign.

As the countdown to opening day ticks away, Iraola’s biggest challenge is no secret. The question is whether he can fix that midfield fast enough to keep Liverpool anywhere near the title conversation.