Liverpool's Left-Back Dilemma: Kerkez's Struggles Exposed

Liverpool’s summer shake-up always felt incomplete. A few big names arrived, a few more slipped through their fingers, and when the window finally slammed shut, only four new faces had actually walked through the door. For a club coming off one of their poorest seasons in recent memory under Arne Slot, it was a surprisingly modest overhaul.

Ronald Araujo and Bradley Barcola added freshness. The rest was more about tweaks than transformation. The real reset came on the touchline, with Andoni Iraola stepping in. His appointment promised energy, aggression, a new edge. Yet Wednesday night’s 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid underlined a simple truth: this squad still carries the scars of last season, and some positions remain glaringly undercooked.

Slot’s legacy and a left-back problem that won’t go away

Liverpool poured more than £450 million into their squad last summer. Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz headlined that spree, the kind of marquee arrivals meant to propel a title charge. Instead, the team drifted. The campaign unravelled into a muddle of poor structure and flat performances, ending with a fifth-place finish in the Premier League and, eventually, Slot’s dismissal.

The tactical confusion and lack of conviction didn’t just cost Liverpool a season; they left a squad with mismatched pieces. One of the most obvious examples sits at left-back.

Milos Kerkez arrived last summer as the anointed heir to Andy Robertson. Slot had made it clear he wanted the Hungarian as his first choice. On paper, it made sense: young, dynamic, aggressive going forward. On the pitch, reality bit. Robertson, even as he edged deeper into his thirties, kept winning the battle on merit. He simply played better, more reliably, more in tune with what Liverpool needed in high-pressure moments.

Some supporters even wondered if the club might move to extend Robertson’s stay, such was his importance. That didn’t happen. Instead, Kostas Tsimikas returned to Anfield to act as back-up, with Kerkez effectively protected as the long-term project.

Wednesday night exposed how fragile that plan still is.

Atletico exploit the weakness

Against Atletico Madrid, Kerkez’s inexperience and defensive looseness were brutally highlighted. Liverpool got the win, but the left-back’s display left a mark for all the wrong reasons.

He was directly involved in the goal the Reds conceded, allowing Marcos Llorente to escape his attention and punish the lapse. It was the sort of moment that sticks in a manager’s mind, not just because of the mistake itself, but because it echoed previous concerns: concentration, positioning, defensive maturity.

With the ball, Kerkez can look lively. As a wing-back, in a system that gives him cover behind, he’s more than serviceable. But Iraola is building around a back four. In that setup, the margins are thinner. Full-backs can’t switch off, can’t play like wingers with a head start. They have to defend first, and that’s where Kerkez still looks raw.

At 22, he has time. Liverpool, chasing trophies and trying to claw back ground on domestic and European rivals, do not.

January already looming large

Liverpool’s squad still has obvious gaps. The starting XI, for all its talent, feels one or two serious reinforcements short of a side that can go the distance on multiple fronts. If the club chooses to sit out the January window, they risk watching the season tilt away from them while others strengthen.

Transfer talk has already started to bubble. Ben Jacobs has even floated the idea that Liverpool could look to replace Alexis Mac Allister in 2027, a long-term planning note that underlines how far ahead the recruitment department is supposed to think.

The more immediate issue is far simpler: left-back.

On current evidence, that position cannot wait until some distant future reshuffle. Kerkez’s erratic performances will test the patience of supporters if they continue at this rate. Linked left-backs came and went over the summer, but by the time January arrives, the pressure to act will be far more intense if nights like the Atletico game keep repeating.

Liverpool do not need another promising project there. They need someone who has already lived the role in a back four, who reads danger early and doesn’t gift chances like the one Llorente seized.

Kerkez may yet grow into that player. For now, he looks like what he is: a talented, attacking wing-back still learning the hard lessons of elite-level defending. And for a club trying to erase the hangover of a chaotic, expensive, underachieving season, that learning curve at left-back is starting to feel like a luxury they can’t really afford.