Liverpool Pursue Andrei Rațiu for Right-Back Rebuild

Liverpool’s search for stability on the right of their defence has taken them back to La Liga, with the club preparing an opening bid for Rayo Vallecano defender Andrei Rațiu this summer.

The 28-year-old Romanian, a mainstay for Rayo over the past three seasons, has emerged as a serious option as Liverpool look to stiffen a position that repeatedly undermined them last year.

Iraola turns to a familiar market

Andoni Iraola has already been backed with funds to bring in Victor Munoz from Osasuna and is ready to return to Spain again as he reshapes his back line. He knows that area of the pitch cost Liverpool far too much.

Liverpool currently have Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley as their recognised right-backs. On paper, it looks healthy. On the pitch last season, it was anything but.

Frimpong is still expected to be first choice next term. That much is clear. But Iraola wants genuine jeopardy around that starting spot, not a comfortable incumbent. Rațiu, in his eyes, offers exactly that: an experienced, battle-hardened defender capable of stepping straight into Premier League intensity.

The move, though, casts a shadow over Bradley’s immediate future. The academy graduate fought his way into the first-team picture, only to see injuries halt his momentum. What a new arrival would mean for his minutes is, at this stage, unclear.

An undervalued mainstay in Spain

Rațiu has quietly built a formidable reputation in Spain. Since arriving at Rayo Vallecano three years ago, he has made 102 appearances in La Liga, often operating without the fanfare that tends to follow more glamorous full-backs.

Within Spain, he is widely viewed as one of the league’s most underrated defenders. For Romania, he is anything but a fringe figure. Rațiu has already earned 38 caps for the national team and previously collected the Romanian Footballer of the Year award.

His club form peaked as Rayo surged to the UEFA Conference League final earlier this year, where they eventually fell to Crystal Palace. Rațiu played a central role in that run, his consistency and resilience under pressure catching the eye of recruiters across Europe.

Liverpool believe there is value there. Serious value.

Price tag and contract complications

SportsBoom report that Iraola sees Rațiu as excellent value in a market where proven defenders command inflated fees. Vallecano, though, know what they have.

The Spanish club are expected to demand around £25 million for the right-back. With Rațiu only signing a new long-term deal in November 2025, and still under contract for another four years, Rayo are in a strong position to hold their ground on price.

That contract length gives them leverage. It does not, however, seem to be putting Liverpool off.

The club are said to be confident they can strike a deal, likely by structuring an offer with significant add-ons to tempt Vallecano into doing business. Performance bonuses, appearance clauses, European incentives — all the usual levers will be in play as Liverpool test Rayo’s resolve.

A problem position that broke last season

The urgency around right-back at Anfield is easy to understand.

Liverpool never truly recovered from losing Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid on a free transfer when his contract expired. The timing was bad enough; the injuries that followed turned it into a full-blown structural issue.

Frimpong and Bradley both spent spells on the sidelines, forcing Arne Slot into a series of makeshift solutions in a key area. The knock-on effect was brutal.

Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai were both pushed into auxiliary right-back roles at various points. It plugged one hole and opened another. Every time one of them dropped wide, Liverpool lost a central midfielder, and with it, control in the middle of the pitch. The season began to unravel, not with a single collapse, but with a steady erosion of balance.

Little wonder Iraola has identified right-back as a priority in his first summer at Anfield. He cannot afford a repeat.

Jacquet and Leoni boost defensive reshuffle

The move for Rațiu comes against the backdrop of a busy defensive rebuild.

Liverpool will confirm another major arrival next week when Jeremy Jacquet finally completes his £55 million switch from Rennes. The deal was agreed on deadline day of the winter window, with the French defender allowed to finish the season in Ligue 1 before heading to Merseyside.

There was early concern when Jacquet suffered a serious shoulder injury shortly after the transfer was announced, but his rehabilitation has gone to plan. He is expected to be ready for initial pre-season testing early next month, a significant boost for Iraola as he looks to bed in his new back line.

Giovanni Leoni’s recovery offers further encouragement. The 19-year-old centre-back tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on his debut against Southampton in the Carabao Cup last September and has not played since. He is now understood to be on track to return in time for the start of pre-season.

Between Jacquet’s arrival, Leoni’s comeback and a potential move for Rațiu, Liverpool’s defensive unit could look very different by the time the new campaign kicks off.

The question now is simple: will Rațiu be the next piece of that puzzle, or will Rayo’s resistance force Liverpool to look elsewhere for the right-back who can finally close a wound that has been open for far too long?