Former Liverpool defender Jason McAteer believes his former club must revamp their right wing during the transfer window
06:00, 18 Jul 2026Updated 08:02, 18 Jul 2026
Yan Diomande of Ivory Coast and RB Leipzig(Image: Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Former Liverpool defender Jason McAteer believes his old club must revitalise their right flank and should not ignore signing a new full-back.
New Reds head coach Andoni Iraola has confirmed interest in recruiting a new right winger having previously admitted his squad is lacking strength in depth.
Liverpool struggled at right-back last season with Conor Bradley still sidelined by the serious knee injury he suffered in January and Jeremie Frimpong hampered by muscle issues and a lack of form, leading to Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Wataru Endo and Joe Gomez all featuring in the position.
And McAteer is adamant the Reds must dip into the market to provide further support at the back as well as recruiting another attacking option.
“I think the areas of concern are down Liverpool’s right-hand side, having lost Trent (Alexander-Arnold) two seasons ago,” he said.
“It vacated a big, big space which we obviously thought Conor Bradley would slot into. You felt Conor was ready to go into that position but unfortunately through injury and performances he’s not been able to do that.
“And then Jeremie Frimpong came in. He’s not an ideal right-back in defensive situations. He’s more of a wing-back, more of an attacking player. So he’s had to fill in and we’ve had Szobsozlai play right-back too so it’s not been great.
“I think that had unsettled (Mohamed) Salah as well and then Salah’s obviously gone. So that right-hand side is an area we need to strengthen, both in the full-back and the wide position.
“There’s been no real talk about a full-back, but certainly (Yan) Diomande has been spoken about quite a lot to come into that area.”
Liverpool were willing to pay £86million for Diomande only for RB Leipzig to demand in excess of £100m, a fee that has thus far put off other potential suitors, including Paris Saint-Germain, whom it has emerged the Ivory Coast international would prefer to join.
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And McAteer added: “Diomande did okay during the World Cup. It was difficult for Ivory Coast. He showed flashes of what he can do, but the thing about the younger players in this tournament is the likes of (Ayyoub) Bouaddi and (Lamine) Yamal seemed to take the headlines and kind of took the spotlight off him a little bit, which is not a bad thing.
“But the fact that you’re looking at maybe paying £100m for him means that you’re kind of looking for him to set the world alight at that kind of price on the biggest stage, and the World Cup was his platform.
“It was difficult to judge him on his World Cup performances, but he’s definitely a young talent that needs to be looked at.”
Speaking to Betarades.gr, McAteer believes France international Bradley Barcola of Paris Saint-Germain represents the better signing for Liverpool this summer.
“Between Diomande and Barcola I would probably go for Barcola right now,” he said. “I don’t think Liverpool need to buy potential anymore. I think we found out last season that potential doesn’t necessarily work all the time.
“You kind of need to buy a bit more of a finished article and someone you can trust a little bit more. I just think Barcola’s performances in this World Cup have just shown more maturity than Diomande.”
