This week, The Athletic is putting the focus on what promises to be another frantic summer transfer window for Liverpool.
On Tuesday, we cast our eye over potential attacking targets. Here, we look at who the outgoing Premier League champions could be monitoring in midfield.
What’s needed?
It is almost six years since Liverpool signed a first-choice holding midfielder, and that department is now in urgent need of a refresh.
This season, coach Arne Slot’s side have become a soft touch, easily played through and often outrun. The loss of control in midfield can be put down to several factors, ranging from Alexis Mac Allister’s slump in performance to injuries forcing key players to be deployed out of position, and even last summer’s departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid, given how important he was in the build-up phase.
There are other variables, too, like the inclusion of summer 2025 signing Florian Wirtz and how his arrival has altered the team’s balance, and how opponents have figured out how to nullify the threat of Ryan Gravenberch after his standout displays in the 2024-25 title-winning season.
While there’s a growing concern it might not be so much about the personnel and more that the playing style and direction are hampering Liverpool’s current team, there’s no denying a new arrival would help.
With Curtis Jones soon entering the final year of his contract and facing an uncertain future, Mac Allister out of form, Wataru Endo injured and also approaching the last season of his deal, and Trey Nyoni expected to go out on loan, the need for greater competition is clear.
Finding a dynamic box-to-box midfielder with exceptional passing qualities and the defensive nous to offer a greater shield of protection to the back line is vital, and the safest shortlist would be to include players who already have Premier League experience.
Adam Wharton
Current club: Crystal Palace
Age: 22
The Palace midfielder should be considered not so much for his tenacity or ability to cut out runners but for the benefits he would bring in the build-up.
Few players break lines and fizz passes forward like Wharton can, and his presence would add a level of excitement to a midfield that has dropped off significantly over the past year.
Wharton’s ability to punch the ball into attacking areas from deep is the skill that sets him apart. As we can see from the visualisation below, he is not afraid to move the ball through congested central areas, often catching opponents off guard with quick, one-touch passes.
He has completed 23.4 per cent of Palace’s line-breaking passes in the opposition half this season, with only Sunderland’s Granit Xhaka bearing more responsibility when it comes to incisive balls into dangerous areas.
Where Wharton does not rate so highly is in his attacking output, given he is yet to score for Palace in 92 appearances since joining from Blackburn Rovers of the Championship in early 2024.
He would not come cheap: he still has three years left on his contract and Palace (whose player trading history with Liverpool has not been straightforward) would demand a huge fee.
Elliot Anderson
Current club: Nottingham Forest
Age: 23
Anderson has the most defensive recoveries per 90 minutes of any player in Europe’s top five domestic leagues.
That extra bite sits nicely alongside his clear ball-playing abilities and determination to set the tone for the team he is playing in. So many of Forest’s positive actions in build-up play come through him, as highlighted by the statistics shown below.
No player across Europe has taken a greater share of their team’s touches (14.3 per cent) than Anderson, while he is also responsible for 21.2 per cent of Forest’s progressive passes, the fifth highest share.
Anderson, like Wharton, is exciting but would also be extremely expensive, probably north of £100million. Liverpool would also have to fend off interest from elsewhere, specifically both Manchester clubs, if they were to sign him. That feels unlikely at this stage.
Alex Scott
Current club: Bournemouth
Age: 22
Liverpool have found it hard to progress the ball forward effectively this season, with Mac Allister’s passing levels deteriorating and Gravenberch failing to hit the ball-carrying heights of the title campaign.
With that in mind, Scott, Bournemouth’s gliding ball-carrier, is another who could help after an impressive season for a team who could yet finish above Liverpool in the table.
Scott — who recently received his first England call-up — oozes confidence when receiving passes in tight spaces, and has proven his creativity in the final third.
Boubacar Kamara
Current club: Aston Villa
Age: 26
Another who offers qualities that would be beneficial, especially if a more defensive-minded option is required.
The Frenchman is a front-footed middle man who gets stuck into tackles, is relatively press-resistant and will often resort to dribbling to get out of tight spots. Kamara ranks seventh for take-ons per 90 minutes among Premier League midfielders and fourth for fouls suffered.
Villa badly miss him when he’s not around and in two of the past three seasons have seen potential title challenges slip away following an injury to their unsung hero. In 2025-26, for example, their win rate with Kamara drops from 72.2 per cent to 23.5 per cent without him.
However, the growing concern is the amount of time he’s spending on the sidelines with injuries, after barely missing a game for Marseille before joining Villa in summer 2022.
Lamine Camara
Current club: Monaco
Age: 22
Should Liverpool choose to look further afield in the summer, they will be hoping to find a player who has similar success to Fabinho following his arrival from Monaco in 2018.
Camara has starred for Monaco and was particularly impressive in a 3-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in March, where he earned rave reviews for his tenacity and relentless running. He’s front-footed in the tackle and is at an age where he has energy to burn. Only two players across Europe’s top five domestic leagues have made more recoveries, while he also completes around two interceptions per game, pointing to his ground-eating defensive style.
The really exciting part of his game, though, is how involved he gets in the build-up play with his clever, progressive passing and creative style.
Mamadou Sangare
Current club: Lens
Age: 23
Another possibility from France’s Ligue 1, Sangare stands out for his defensive output, as we can see from his barcode chart below. Only three under-23 midfielders across Europe attempt more true tackles (a metric that’s a combination of tackles won, tackles lost and fouls committed while attempting a tackle), while he also ranks third for ball recoveries.
Sangare plays with the No 8 on his back but is more positioned like a No 6 on the pitch. Clearly, he likes to get forward, too, as his runs from midfield — similar to those of Gravenberch, when he gets going — have become an exciting part of his game this season.
Here you can see an example of what he is brilliant at; winning the ball, turning defence into attack and then producing an assist — although they are not all as silky as this:
La délicieuse passe décisive de Mamadou Sangaré 🪄 pic.twitter.com/HijAVY1SoW
— Ligue 1 McDonald’s (@Ligue1) January 29, 2026
Angelo Stiller
Current club: Stuttgart
Age: 25
Liverpool considered a move for Stiller after they missed out on Martin Zubimendi in summer 2024, and he still represents an interesting option.
He is two years older now and more experienced, so some of the doubts they had then may have been eased. Whether he will squeeze into Germany’s World Cup squad remains to be seen, and even if he does, he’s most likely to be a backup player.
Still is not a natural goalscorer — he has just 11 in 183 senior games for Stuttgart and previous club Hoffenheim — but he is durable. Over the past three seasons, he has been a virtual ever-present in the Stuttgart side — an attractive quality for Liverpool, whose issues with injuries during the current campaign have been well documented.
Ederson
Current club: Atalanta
Age: 26
No midfield transfer list would be complete without a mention of Ederson, who has been linked with almost every big club around in recent times (maybe because he is set to be out of contract in 2027 and so is considered likely to be on the move soon).
He’s not so much the same stylistically as Fabinho, the fellow Brazilian who previously shone for Liverpool as a holding midfielder, but he does offer combative defensive qualities alongside strong technical play. He reads the game well and records a high volume of ball recoveries, which is what Liverpool need to see more often from their midfielders next season.
How seriously the club’s owners at Fenway Sports Group (FSG) take this next transfer window will potentially determine how quickly this faltering team get back on track. Whatever happens in the months ahead though, signing at least one new midfielder should be a priority.
