Liverpool's New Era Under Andoni Iraola: Questions Remain
The Andoni Iraola era has begun at Liverpool, but nobody at Anfield is pretending this feels settled. The season is rolling, the fixtures are stacking up, and yet the club heads towards deadline day with obvious gaps and a fanbase asking why problems everyone saw coming still haven’t been solved.
A home competitive debut for Iraola against Nottingham Forest looms on Saturday lunchtime. The League Cup starts in a few weeks. The Champions League is around the corner. Liverpool are moving, but they are not moving freely.
And the questions keep coming.
The Salah Successor That Never Arrived
The most pointed one is obvious: how did Liverpool, knowing for so long that Mohamed Salah was leaving, end up scrambling for a right winger in the final days of the window?
The answer is not that they ignored the issue. They went early. Yan Diomande was identified at the start of the summer as the preferred successor. He wanted the move, Liverpool had encouragement, and he was viewed as attainable.
Then came the brick wall. RB Leipzig put a prohibitive price on the Ivorian. From there, the dynamic changed. Diomande, having interest from Paris Saint-Germain as well, effectively used both Liverpool and PSG as leverage to secure a move to Real Madrid. He is not the first to do that, and he will not be the last.
That misfire left Liverpool on the back foot. PSG then drove a similarly hard bargain over Bradley Barcola, demanding big money as Liverpool looked to bulk up their attack.
The result? A club of Liverpool’s stature, with a clear need on the right, now hunting for a winger with the deadline days away. Other Premier League clubs are also leaving business late, but it does little to soften the optics. For a fanbase that had months to brace for life after Salah, this feels like a plan that never quite reached the pitch.
Iraola’s Midfield: No Fixed “Best”, Just the Right One
If the wide areas are a concern, the middle of the pitch is a puzzle of a different kind.
Supporters are wondering what Iraola’s “best” midfield looks like, especially with no new defensive midfielder in sight. The truth is, there may not be a single, settled trio. Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool leaned into a “horses for courses” approach, tailoring the midfield to the opponent and the game state. Iraola seems likely to continue that logic.
Certain patterns are already clear. Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai are the three primary candidates for the two deeper roles. Mac Allister’s intelligence, Gravenberch’s physicality and Szoboszlai’s energy give Iraola different blends of control and aggression.
Szoboszlai also stands out as the natural alternative to Florian Wirtz in the No 10 role. When Wirtz plays higher, the Hungarian can drop deeper. When Wirtz is not there, Szoboszlai can be pushed on to become the creative spearhead.
Behind them, the picture is thinner. Wataru Endo has started only two Premier League games in more than two seasons. Trey Nyoni carries high expectations but has yet to start a top-flight match. The lack of a specialist defensive midfielder has been a concern for more than a year. That concern has not gone away.
Hughes on the Brink and Another Structural Shift
The uncertainty does not end on the pitch.
There is a growing expectation that sporting director Richard Hughes will leave once the summer window closes, with Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League viewed as his most likely destination. For a club that has already churned through several sporting directors in recent years, another change at the top of the recruitment structure is hardly ideal.
Liverpool could look internally. Julian Ward, now technical director at Fenway Sports Group, is a logical candidate if they want continuity from within the existing hierarchy. But there is no indication yet that a replacement is lined up or imminent.
At a time when every transfer decision feels loaded with long-term significance, the prospect of another reset behind the scenes only adds to the sense of flux.
Gakpo’s Future and the Isak Question
Then there is the forward line, where one name keeps cropping up: Cody Gakpo.
On the face of it, selling Gakpo looks like a risk. Liverpool need more attacking depth, not less. Unless the Dutchman himself is pushing for a move, the idea of sanctioning his departure jars with the reality of a squad already light in certain areas.
Given the criticism he absorbed from some fans last season, nobody would be shocked if he wanted a fresh start. Yet his performances at the start of this campaign have looked like those of a player determined to stay and prove a point.
If he does go, the equation changes again. Liverpool are expected to bring in two forwards if they lose Gakpo. One of them would almost certainly spend a lot of time as understudy to Alexander Isak, at least until Hugo Ekitike returns from injury. That is a big tactical and financial call to make with the clock ticking.
Injuries and the Long Road Back
Injuries are another layer of uncertainty.
Giovanni Leoni, Joe Gomez, Hugo Ekitike and Conor Bradley are all sidelined, and none has been given a precise public timeline for a return. Without daily access to their recovery work, even those close to the club are wary of guessing.
Ekitike has set his own target: Boxing Day. But the nature of his Achilles injury suggests that while he may be back on the grass then, Liverpool are unlikely to see the best version of him until next season.
Bradley has been out since early January. The club will not rush a young right-back whose energy and intensity are central to his game. Leoni is closing in on a return to first-team training, but after almost a year out, his minutes are likely to be carefully rationed before Christmas.
Gomez is expected to be back sooner than the others, yet the fact he has already been missing for a month is another concern for a defence that cannot afford many more setbacks.
Why the Mood Is So Heavy
So why does it all feel so negative so early?
Part of it is simple: everyone knew for months where this squad needed help. Those areas have not been fully addressed. When the season opened at Newcastle United, the mistakes that cost Liverpool were painfully familiar, echoing the issues that plagued them a year ago.
For many supporters, the lack of new faces on the pitch has overshadowed the change in the dugout. Iraola brings fresh ideas and a different energy, but ideas need the right tools. Until the recruitment catches up, optimism has a ceiling.
Deadline day could change the mood. A couple of smart, late deals and the narrative shifts quickly. Yet there is a harder truth sitting underneath all of this.
For the first time in several years, there is a broad acceptance that Liverpool are not expected to challenge for the title. The question now is not whether they can keep pace with the very top, but how fast Iraola and the club can rebuild a side that once set the standard — and how long Anfield is prepared to wait.
