The season started with Liverpool seemingly easy to score against which has been mostly addressed by Andoni Iraola as well the wingers adjusting to playing on either side but there still seems to be a midfield issue.
Back in the 24/25 title winning season under former head coach Arne Slot there was one player who stood out due to his stunning upturn in performances which earned the award of Young Player of the Year in the Premier League, that player was Ryan Gravenberch.
This writer considers 24 year-old
Gravenberch to be a bit of an enigma who, since his rise at Ajax helping them win three Edredivisie titles was brought by Bayern Munich in 2022 but then sold to Liverpool a year later. Even Jurgen Klopp seemed to struggle to find the position that got the best from the Dutchman yet the arrival of Slot and his use of Gravenberch created a situation that he thrived in. Even at the beginning of the disastrous 25/26 season Gravenberch showed off his ability to turn with the ball and push the attacking play as well adding a couple of goals which was an added step up in his qualities.
It’s also worth remembering that Gravenberch was probably Liverpool’s best player against 114 City and his wrongful sending off changed the game in the opponents favor not just numerically but also due to how well Gravenberch had imposed himself on the game up to that point.
During that same bleak season there was one player who was stood out for his determination, unrelenting energy, elite set-piece taking and leadership. That player was Dominik Szoboszlai and due to Hungry not qualifying for the 26 World Cup he had the whole pre-season with new head coach Iraola and he was the squad’s new driving force now that Mohamed Salah had left. Dom was even given the role of Vice Captain and there probably weren’t any Liverpool supporters who felt that was undeserved due to the previous season and the attitude throughout the pre-season.
Alexis Mac Allister had his worse season as a Red last year to the point where many Liverpool supporters wouldn’t have been opposed to Alexis being sold yet it was the scouser Curtis Jones who wanted out and got his wish when sold to Inter Milan. With how Alexis has been performing so far this season it’s a relief he wasn’t sold and is probably our best midfielder with young Trey Nyoni rapidly showing himself to be the name many supporters would be happy to see on the starting XI team sheets.
The last of the main midfield players is Florian Wirtz, a German generational talent who has divided opinions between supporters and pundits alike with flashes of brilliance, lots of energy yet numbers that underwhelm when put alongside his price tag and performances for the German national team. This writer still won’t write him off because there is also a problem with the attacking players scoring from many of the chances Wirtz supplies with his playmaking qualities.
Lastly, as briefly mentioned earlier, is 19 year-old Trey Nyoni who has seized the opportunities Iraola has given him with a maturity and quality that’s impossible to ignore and was emphasized last Sunday with the game against Arsenal. Trey is calm with the ball and is always looking for a line breaking pass or at least forward play as well putting in tackles and intercepting opponent’s attacking plays. It was very obvious that when Trey was subbed off for Dom there was a drop in the midfield’s effectiveness and this had an overall influence in Liverpool’s control of the game.
There does appear to be a problem with finding the right balance or combination of those players and some of that is still about fully grasping what Iraola wants from them as well the connection between the three units of defense, midfield and attack.
This writer would also add that my personal opinion is the midfield being the toughest area of the pitch as a player because it’s the link that usually dictates the control aspect and flow of transitional play. This therefore would lead to the logic that getting the right combination of skillsets is vital but added to this is that the four main Liverpool midfielders aren’t in synch with their levels leading to a disjointed unit where Gravenberch, Wirtz and even Szoboszlai struggle yet Alexis and Trey are flying.
So what does this all mean going forward and is it just a matter of time to allow the players to settle into the new demands being asked by Iraola and his approach to playing the game. All the mentioned players have spoken about how they are enjoying this new style except maybe Wirtz who definitely keeps a lower public presence and perhaps understandably due to the negative comments from pundits especially.
Iraola sets his midfield up in a way that gives one player, usually Wirtz, the responsibility to be the advanced playmaker sitting just behind the center-forward while the other two are a double pivot. In contrast to this was how Klopp had the wonderful Roberto Firmino as a false nine which gave a midfield of three water carriers, one of which was a disciplined defensive midfielder plus Bobby Dazzler dropping deep giving Liverpool four midfielders.
This isn’t to say Iraola’s approach is flawed and there have been some good games already this season that have shown how powerful this Reds squad can be. This writer thinks it’s also fair to say that the attackers have not been making the most of very decent goal scoring chances which compounds the disappointment when reading the stats relating to how potent the midfield creative play is (especially Wirtz’s assist numbers).
In conclusion when considering the Champions league match tomorrow it may be worth trying Szoboszlai in Wirtz’s role with Gravenberch and Alexis as the double pivot in the hope of seeing what that combination can produce. Trey has already shown he is more than capable and happy to conduct play from a deep midfield position and Wirtz isn’t suited for a double pivot but could maybe do well as a false nine (Ekitike is a natural at it). The false nine is not what Iraola has been opting for yet that also could be down to Alexander Isak certainly being a more traditional center-forward target man.
It will be interesting to see who Iraola and FSG go after as the next midfield signing because it will give the clearest indication of what Iraola wants as a midfielder profile and provide a glimpse into what he sees as lacking in that department. That’s something we will have to wait until at least January for when the winter transfer window opens so for now we will have to see if persistence until it all clicks is the requirement or if one player becomes mostly unused until a replacement is brought in.
