Liverpool's Imbalanced Squad: Challenges Ahead for Iraola

Liverpool have just thrown another £200m-plus at the squad, outspending last summer’s rebuild. On paper, it is the most expensively assembled group in the club’s history. On the pitch, Andoni Iraola is left juggling a puzzle that still does not quite fit.

Jamie Carragher did not dress 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, and he cut straight to the core of the unease.

That is despite the headline arrival of Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain for £123m. A blockbuster fee. A statement signing. And yet, even that move shines a light on the same old problem: balance.

Liverpool have just lost Mohamed Salah, the best left-footed right-winger the Premier League has seen. The club’s response? Stack the opposite flank. Left-sided attackers everywhere. A right wing that suddenly feels like an afterthought.

"Liverpool have not got a real out-and-out right-sided attacker," Carragher continued. "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 play across the front line. Versatility is part of his appeal. But a fee of that size demands clarity, and his best work has not come from the right. Cody Gakpo has started on the left. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike have been used there too. The logjam is obvious.

Rio Ngumoha broke through on the left as well, only to be tested on the opposite flank in pre-season. Victor Munoz? Another one signed after a single top-flight season – again, as a left winger. The pattern is hard to ignore.

None of this is enough to write off Liverpool’s recruitment. It is not a disaster. It is stranger than that. A squad stacked high in certain positions, threadbare in others, and reliant on the coach to make sense of the imbalance.

The picture at full-back underlines the point. When Jeremie Frimpong arrived last summer, the message from the club was clear: he was not a replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back. Two league games into this season, that is exactly where he has been used.

With Conor Bradley injured, Frimpong is the only genuine fit for the role. Some argue Dominik Szoboszlai could fill in there, but that screams compromise. Shuffling a centre-back wide is even less appealing in Iraola’s system, where full-backs are not just defenders – they are sprinters, playmakers, and permanent outlets.

The data backs it up. Frimpong and Milos Kerkez sit among the top three players in the Premier League this season for sprints. Above them? Adrien Truffert of Bournemouth, Iraola’s old side. The pattern is no coincidence. This is how his teams breathe.

Look at Liverpool’s average positions in their opening two games and compare them to that title-winning campaign under Arne Slot. The full-backs fly on, often together, stretching the pitch. It looks thrilling. It also leaves a yawning responsibility on the midfield to plug the gaps.

That is where the doubts grow louder. Ryan Gravenberch rose to the challenge in Slot’s side, covering ground and carrying the ball. But Alexis Mac Allister’s physical drop-off over the past 18 months has been clear. Can Iraola really rely on this group to shut down counters when both full-backs are high and the game breaks?

Is he even aiming for a classic holding midfielder? At Bournemouth, he wanted aggression, not sitting. Alex Scott spoke of being "very aggressive" without the ball. Tyler Adams said the players believed they would "win the ball high up the field." That mindset risks leaving oceans of space if the press is beaten.

The warning signs have already flashed. "I do not believe that midfield can function with the personnel in there," Carragher said. "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 Liverpool’s first Premier League game, the rest defence was ripped open. Full-backs pushed up, centre-backs retreating, and nobody occupying the crucial space in between. Newcastle found it, surged through, and scored. It felt less like a one-off and more like a preview.

With Liverpool’s full-backs wired to attack and Virgil van Dijk increasingly inclined to drop rather than step in, this looks like a structural fault line, not a bad day at the office. Iraola has inherited the most expensive squad in Liverpool history, but also the most obviously unbalanced one in a decade.

So what now, with the window closed? Any solution must come from within. That means compromise. It means sacrifice.

"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 the dilemma.

"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, Liverpool look exactly what the early scorelines suggest: a high-wire act. A couple of wild, high-scoring draws feel about right. They can overwhelm teams. They can be cut open just as quickly.

Imperfect. Imbalanced. But with Iraola’s demands, the talent in attack, and those full-backs flying, they might just be the most watchable gamble in the league.