Daniel Sturridge's Challenge to Liverpool: Sign a Defensive Midfielder

Daniel Sturridge has thrown down a clear challenge to Liverpool’s hierarchy: sign a defensive midfielder before the window slams shut.

Liverpool’s title defence has already hit turbulence. On Sunday at St James’ Park, the 2024/25 champions needed a 99th‑minute penalty from Dominik Szoboszlai just to salvage a draw against Newcastle. The late escape did nothing to mask the cracks.

Jamie Carragher raged at the manner of the hosts’ two goals, calling out the “madness” of failing to fix the same midfield issues that haunted Liverpool last season. Under Arne Slot they were too easy to slice through. Under Andoni Iraola, Newcastle found the same soft centre.

Sturridge’s blunt message

On Sky Sports after the game, Sturridge didn’t bother dressing it up. He went straight for the problem.

“I think the team needs a defensive midfielder, personally,” the former Liverpool striker said. “We’ve been talking about a defensive midfielder at Liverpool for the last three years.

“Gravenberch coming into the team, playing consistently and Liverpool winning the Premier League sort of changed that philosophy, but if you actually analyse the midfield, they’re all naturally more attacking players.”

That, for Sturridge, is the crux. Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister shone as a double pivot in last season’s title run, but neither is a pure number 6. They can recycle the ball, create, link play. They are not destroyers. They do not live to break up attacks and set the platform.

Sturridge had just finished praising new Brentford signing Mamadou Sangare for his performance against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday when he drew a sharp contrast.

“Liverpool don’t have that profile of player right now,” he said. “I really like Trey Nyoni as a player. He’s brilliant, but he’s more of a ball‑playing [number] 6 or [number] 8.

“He’s not a destroyer. He’s not someone who’s gonna strike fear into the opposition like Sangare can, or like N’Golo Kante over the years.”

That line will sting at Anfield. Liverpool once built a dynasty on exactly that sort of presence at the base of midfield. Right now, they are improvising.

A gap everyone can see

You would struggle to find many Liverpool supporters who disagree with Sturridge after what they watched on Tyneside. Newcastle ran through the middle of the pitch too often, too easily. The structure that carried Slot’s side to the title looked fragile without a specialist shield in front of the back four.

Gravenberch and Mac Allister are excellent footballers. They are not the archetypal ball-winner who relishes duels, hoovers up second balls and launches counters from turnovers. The squad still lacks that profile.

Adam Wharton fits that description. The Crystal Palace midfielder reads the game, tackles, and passes with authority. But with the deadline looming and Wharton central to Palace’s plans, the idea of Richard Hughes prising him out now feels wildly optimistic.

So the gaze turns back inwards. Trey Nyoni is hugely admired at the club. Technically polished, calm on the ball, able to dictate tempo. Yet he is only 19. Expecting him to walk into the team and solve a long-standing structural flaw would be a burden, not a pathway. He should not be asked to mop up for several windows’ worth of hesitation in the market.

Time almost gone

That is the tension facing Liverpool’s decision-makers. The need is obvious. The clock is brutal.

The window closes on Tuesday week. Between now and then, Slot and his staff must prepare for more Premier League battles with a midfield that still feels one piece short. Any move now will have to be swift, decisive and expensive.

Liverpool have navigated bigger rebuilds than this. They have also, as Carragher and Sturridge both hinted, left themselves exposed before by waiting too long.

The question now is simple: will they finally move for the destroyer their midfield has been crying out for, or try to defend a title with a gap everyone in the league can see?