Andoni Iraola will be able to call upon a new £60million arrival in the upcoming season
Andoni Iraola is assessing his defensive options at Liverpool(Image: Getty Images)
Liverpool are expected to have a busy summer transfer window following the arrival of new head coach Andoni Iraola. Despite spending a whopping £446million on new additions last summer, this season showed that there is still plenty of room for improvement in the squad.
Iraola is set to implement the same high-intensity and front-foot football that served him so well at Bournemouth in the last few years, meaning Liverpool will deviate from the more cautious style Arne Slot brought in prior to his recent sacking.
All eyes are fixed on who the Basque will look to sign, with plenty of discussion centred around Mohamed Salah’s forward replacement. Any signing is sure to be a match for Iraola’s direct, attacking philosophy.
Yet there is cause to believe the Reds are also planning to bolster their defensive options, especially in long-term recruitment at centre-back. Here, the Liverpool Echo takes a look at how the defence may end up looking by the end of the summer window.
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Jeremy Jacquet will go down as Slot’s last signing at Liverpool, having signed for the club in a £60million deal in early February. Jacquet had agreed to join the Reds from Rennes at the end of the 2025/26 campaign.
The 20-year-old is a very welcome addition, given the huge hole Ibrahima Konate’s departure has left at the centre of defence. The Frenchman recently left as a free agent after his contract expired.
Jeremy Jacquet has already been signed for a total of £60m(Image: Neal Simpson/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
Alongside Jacquet, Joe Gomez and captain Virgil van Dijk, Iraola also has youngster Giovanni Leoni to rely on. However, the talented Italian is still raw and has yet to play a Premier League game, given he spent the entire season recovering from an ACL injury.
Liverpool could therefore do with signing another experienced centre-back to bridge the gap between youngsters Leoni and Jacquet, and Van Dijk and Gomez, both of whose contracts are set to expire next year.
Goncalo Inacio of Sporting CP would represent a brilliant long-term signing. The Portuguese is reportedly still on Liverpool’s radar after several years of being linked with an Anfield move.
The 24-year-old is composed on the ball and boasts an outstanding passing range, which allows him to break lines and fit perfectly into Iraola’s system. He is also left-footed, allowing the club to future-proof the defence if Van Dijk leaves.
Goncalo Inacio has been a Liverpool target for several years(Image: Getty)
Inacio is certainly in high demand, with several other top clubs vying for his signature. But despite having a £55m release clause in his contract, Sporting might be willing to negotiate below that figure.
Moving on to the right-back role, the position caused Slot plenty of headaches last season following Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure, Conor Bradley’s injury and Jeremie Frimpong’s lack of form. That meant duties on the right-hand side of defence were shared between Gomez, Dominik Szoboszlai, Calvin Ramsay and Curtis Jones, with nobody really nailing down a place.
Bradley is expected to return to the fold sometime in September and reclaim the position as his own. Should he stay fit and kick on this campaign, there is no reason why the defender, who joined Liverpool when he was 16, can’t efficiently replace Alexander-Arnold as the club’s homegrown jewel. Frimpong and youngster Ramsay, meanwhile, will continue as back-up options.
At left-back, the departure of club legend Andy Robertson to Tottenham leaves Liverpool somewhat short, with Milos Kerkez being the only other left-back in the squad. However, the Reds may not need to address the position in the transfer market, with some reports suggesting Kostas Tsimikas could resume his role as deputy following his return from a season-long loan at Roma.
As such, this is how the Liverpool defence could look going into the 2026/27 campaign under their new exciting manager:
Right back: Conor Bradley, Jeremie Frimpong, Calvin Ramsay.
Centre back: Virgil van Dijk, Goncalo Inacio, Jeremy Jacquet, Joe Gomez, Giovanni Leoni.
Left back: Milos Kerkez, Kostas Tsimikas.
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