Iraola's Urgent Call for Wingers at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola knows exactly what he’s missing.

Liverpool’s new head coach is heading into the start of the season convinced his squad is short in one key area – out wide – and he isn’t hiding it.

Iraola sounds the alarm on the wings

“We don't have enough players specific to play in those positions,” Iraola admitted when asked about Liverpool’s business in the final stretch of the transfer window. It was blunt, and it was deliberate.

Liverpool have already felt that shortage. A £50m bid for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh was knocked back earlier this week, while the club have explored a move for Paris St-Germain’s Ibrahim Mbaye. The name at the top of the list, though, remains PSG winger Bradley Barcola, who is viewed as the primary target to bolster the wide attacking options before the window closes.

Iraola wanted all of this sorted long ago.

“As a manager, this is an easy one for me. I wanted the players for the first day on 13 July – everyone here and all the positions doubled with top-level players,” he said. That ideal has already gone. The reality is a squad still being built while the competitive games begin.

“You understand how the competition works, that the market is open and you start the competition. We have to adapt as coaches to this situation. I hate these two weeks or these 10 days that we have because there is a lot of uncertainty – but not in Liverpool, everywhere. But we have to adapt.”

The message is clear: he doesn’t like it, but he’ll live with it. For now.

Big names out, big fees in

Liverpool’s summer has been anything but quiet. The club have undergone a sharp reset since Iraola replaced Arne Slot, and some of the dressing room’s most established figures have gone.

Mohamed Salah has departed. So have Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate. Curtis Jones is in Italy to complete a £30m move to Inter Milan, a deal Iraola expects to go through even if he stops short of calling it official.

“With Curtis, you know. I think it's still not official but there is an ongoing situation,” he said. “I value him a lot as a player. He loved this club – it was very clear since the beginning for me – but I understood that probably the outcome was going to be what it has been at the end.”

He spoke about Jones with a mix of admiration and resignation.

“I've never hid it – for me Curtis is a very good player. A very, very good player, but I understood straight away when he talked to me about his situation. It was a situation that could happen and it looks like it is going to happen.”

Those exits have created space. They have also raised the bar for the kind of footballer Liverpool now need to bring in.

Targeted rebuild, not a trolley dash

Iraola’s Liverpool are not starting from scratch. The club have already moved decisively in some areas.

Victor Munoz has arrived for £34.5m. Ronald Araujo has joined on loan from Barcelona, adding pedigree and presence at the back. Jeremy Jacquet, the French centre-half, finally walked through the door from Rennes in a £60m deal that was actually tied up back in January.

So the squad has new blood. It just isn’t complete.

“You are asking me what we need – there are certain situations that for me are clear – especially now on the wing because we don't have enough players specific to play in those positions,” Iraola said.

“And then in other positions, I think we have to be open-minded in the market to see situations that honestly can improve our team. It's not about signing because we need a player here. No, it's about improving the squad. And we have very good players already here, so to improve our very good players, you need like a specific level of player, yes.”

This is not a manager demanding bodies for the sake of it. He wants quality that can lift what he already has, not simply fill gaps on a squad list.

A thin squad and a looming deadline

The tension of the final days of the window doesn’t appeal to Iraola, but he knows he is stuck with it. Speaking to Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports, he accepted that Liverpool will have to live in that chaos for a little while longer.

“We will definitely sign some players. Some deals you have to wait until the end. But the end is the important picture, the one we will have on September 1. Because it is true that we are still quite thin.”

That last line cuts to the heart of Liverpool’s situation. For all the noise, for all the money spent and the big names moved on, Iraola still looks at his options and sees a squad short of depth in key roles.

It is not the first time he has sounded that warning. During Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the USA, he voiced similar concerns about defensive options. Inside Anfield, there is an expectation that the final stretch of this window will be busy. The feeling is that the real shape of Iraola’s Liverpool will only become clear when the clock stops and the market closes.

For now, the new manager works with what he has, eyes fixed on the flanks, waiting to see if the club can deliver the wide players he believes will define his first season on Merseyside.