Liverpool's Midfield Strategy: No Replacement for Curtis Jones

Liverpool are standing firm. Curtis Jones has gone, the debate is raging, but the club have no intention of dipping back into the midfield market before the window shuts.

Jones’ £30m move to Inter Milan – agreed with a year left on his deal and framed as a clean break for all sides – has left a visible gap in Andoni Iraola’s squad. It is not just about numbers. It is about balance.

Anfield has been fretting about that balance for a while.

Dominik Szoboszlai drives forward. Alexis Mac Allister wants to create. Ryan Gravenberch is not a natural shield. There is no orthodox No 6 in sight, and the issue was brutally exposed in Sunday’s chaotic 2-2 draw with Newcastle, when the visitors sliced through Liverpool on the counter repeatedly.

The noise around a new holding midfielder grew louder after that game. Supporters demanded action, pundits joined in, and the familiar accusation resurfaced: Liverpool have left a structural flaw untouched for three years.

Inside the club, though, the plan has not shifted.

Writing in The Athletic, James Pearce reported that senior Liverpool figures remain committed to strengthening only out wide, not in the middle of the pitch. The message is clear: Jones will not be replaced by a signing.

They believe they already have his successor.

Teenager Trey Nyoni, highly rated and fast-tracked behind the scenes, is viewed as ready to take a significantly bigger role this season. The club see him as part of the solution, not a late-summer gamble.

Unless there is a dramatic change of stance, the chequebook will be opened only for a wide forward.

This is not because Iraola never worried. Far from it.

As revealed by Graeme Bailey, the Liverpool head coach had serious concerns about midfield depth once it became apparent that Jones might leave. He wanted the England international to stay, at least in part to protect that area of the pitch.

Those doubts triggered a broad scouting drive. Big names were discussed. Bailey reports that Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali were both assessed as potential options before heading elsewhere – Guimaraes to Arsenal, Tonali to Tottenham – but neither deal was pursued.

Iraola also pushed for other avenues to be explored. Liverpool’s recruitment team ran the rule over a host of profiles: Elliot Anderson’s situation was monitored, as were those of Tonali and Guimaraes, but the fit – sporting, financial or both – was never quite right.

Attention then moved to younger, developmental midfielders. Adam Wharton, Alex Scott and Lamine Camara all came under serious consideration. The feedback was positive. The price tags were not.

Deals for that calibre of prospect, Bailey notes, were coming in at £50m, £60m and even beyond £70m. For players Liverpool liked but did not see as must-sign additions, the numbers were simply too high.

So the club have stepped back. The conclusion: promote from within, trust Nyoni, and redirect resources towards wide attacking reinforcements.

Outside the recruitment room, patience is thinner.

Daniel Sturridge has voiced what many fans feel. The former Liverpool striker is openly worried about the side’s fragility without a specialist defensive midfielder and has criticised the club for failing to land a £39m option this summer. In his view, the hole in front of the back four has been obvious for three seasons.

Liverpool, then, are walking a tightrope by choice. Iraola is betting on coaching, youth and internal solutions in the most scrutinised area of his team. If the midfield holds, it will look like conviction. If it cracks again under Premier League fire, the questions about this window will not just return – they will explode.