Liverpool's Left-Back Dilemma: Kerkez Under Pressure
Liverpool’s summer of change always felt incomplete. A few big names arrived, a few more slipped away, and then the door quietly shut. Four signings, and that was that.
For a club coming off one of their bleakest seasons in recent memory under Arne Slot, it’s a thin return. The squad still carries the scars of that campaign. The reset never fully happened.
Yes, Andoni Iraola’s appointment on the touchline is the headline shift. His ideas, his energy, his style — that’s where Liverpool hope the real transformation lies. But Wednesday night’s 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid underlined something more uncomfortable: this team still has obvious weak points, and left-back is rapidly becoming the loudest alarm.
Kerkez under the spotlight
Last summer Liverpool threw over £450 million at their problems. Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz were the centrepieces, the marquee statements. Yet the overall picture looked muddled. The squad lacked clarity, lacked bite, and slid to fifth in the Premier League.
Slot paid the ultimate price, but his fingerprints remain all over this group. One of the clearest examples is Milos Kerkez.
Kerkez arrived as the long-term heir to Andy Robertson, a Slot favourite and, on paper, a modern, attacking full-back tailor-made for a high-energy Liverpool side. In reality, Robertson still played and still played better. The veteran Scot kept winning his place on merit, to the point where some supporters started talking about a new deal for him.
That never came. Instead, Kostas Tsimikas was brought back to Anfield to sit behind Kerkez, not Robertson. The message was obvious: the future is Hungarian.
Wednesday suggested the future might be arriving too soon.
Against Atletico, Kerkez looked raw. Too raw for a team with Liverpool’s ambitions. He was directly involved in the goal conceded, losing Marcos Llorente and allowing the Spaniard the space he needed. At this level, that lapse is fatal. And it’s not the first time his defensive concentration has been questioned.
As a wing-back, his qualities stand out. He can run, he can carry the ball, he can stretch a game. In a back four, with more space behind him and more responsibility on his shoulders, the flaws are harder to hide.
January already calling
Liverpool’s squad still has holes you can see from the top of the Kop. Several positions need refreshing, and the starting XI doesn’t yet look like one built to go stride for stride with the very best.
If the club sit out the January window, they risk watching rivals accelerate away.
Transfer talk is already swirling. Ben Jacobs has even floated the idea that Liverpool could look to replace Alexis Mac Allister in 2027, a reminder of how far ahead big clubs try to plan. But the more immediate concern may sit at left-back.
Kerkez’s display against Atletico won’t be forgotten quickly. Performances like that, repeated over the first half of the season, will test the patience of supporters who have grown used to Robertson’s reliability and edge. By the time January rolls around, the calls for a new, more seasoned option on that flank could be deafening.
Liverpool did explore left-backs in the summer. Those links will resurface if Kerkez doesn’t settle. The evidence so far suggests he is not yet the defensive presence required in a flat back four, not for a side chasing titles and deep runs in Europe.
The solution looks obvious: an experienced, defensively assured left-back to either push Kerkez or protect him. Because if Liverpool are serious about closing the gap at the top, they can’t afford to let one position keep dragging them back.
