How to fix Liverpool's leaky midfield: Snap up a new No 6, the unpalatable Florian Wirtz option, change the roles of Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong or bring in the academy kid who lit up pre-season

Liverpool may be on the verge of splashing over £100m on their Mo Salah replacement with the French wonder winger Bradley Barcola on his way through the door, but he won't solve their midfield muddle.

The lack of a No 6, a screen, a player to snuff out danger and do the dirty work was glaringly obvious at Newcastle last week. It is a problem for new boss Andoni Iraola as he tries to get his feet under the table at Anfield.

During game one of the new regime, that Liverpool weakness, that openness in the centre of the park, was laid bare - a continuation of the problem that plagued Arne Slot and ultimately led to him losing his job. 

For Newcastle’s first goal, Ryan Gravenberch tried a pass at the edge of the penalty area he was attacking. The Dutchman lost possession and, seconds later, the home team were on the charge. With one pass, they bypassed the midfield and were clean through on Liverpool’s two central defenders, with the full backs busting a gut to recover. Gravenberch and midfield partner Dominik Szoboszlai? Nowhere to be seen.

Later in the game, Gravenberch again lost possession at the edge of the box. This time, there were bodies for Yoane Wissa to get through – which he did too easily – but again, within seconds, Liverpool went from a promising attack to being vulnerable and exposed. Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and fellow midfielder Florian Wirtz? Jogging back.

The response to the game has been loud cries of ‘sign a defensive midfielder’ from fans and pundits including Daniel Sturridge and Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports. It formed the basis of Daily Mail Sport’s match analysis and was the talking point in Iraola’s post-match press briefing.

But is it as simple as that? And what are the other options to fix this midfield mess?

SIGN A NEW No 6

This is not an overreaction based on one game of football. They have needed a No 6 since Fabinho left in 2023.

That summer, they had tried to sign Romeo Lavia, then of Southampton, and Moises Caicedo, then of Brighton. Both moved to Chelsea.

They ended up signing a stop-gap option in Wataru Endo, who arrived from Stuttgart on Deadline Day. The Japan international is the only specialist No 6 at the club but very rarely plays there and is often used as back-up in defence. He is also 33 and not a long-term solution.

Jurgen Klopp cobbled something together with Alexis Mac Allister, Curtis Jones and Trent Alexander-Arnold also playing in the holding role in a season where they made a fair title charge until it fizzled out in mid-March. The next summer, a deal for Real Sociedad and Spain No 6 Martin Zubimendi was advanced and Slot had spoken to the player. He decided to stay put and ultimately ended up at Arsenal a year later.

Slot found a revelation in pre-season as he converted the lesser-seen Gravenberch into a holding midfielder. He and Mac Allister formed a formidable duo on and off the ball as Liverpool romped to the Premier League title.

But it all fell apart from there as neither could sustain that level going into last season. Mac Allister, privately, was taken aback by some of the criticism he received but he seemed to struggle physically for the entire campaign. Jones’s exit this summer further compounds the lack of numbers in the position.

So, will they sign a defensive midfielder this summer? The messaging all window has been clear: wide attack is the priority – not a new No 6.

Lamine Camara at Monaco is a name that has circled in the last 24 hours – with Chelsea also said to be linked – but the word from Liverpool sources remains the same: The Reds are not in the market for midfielders. And that will only change if another midfielder leaves.

DROP MEGA-MONEY WIRTZ

Given the £116m fee paid for Wirtz last year, this one will not go down well. It cannot be a long-term solution either.

But pushing Szoboszlai higher and having a more solid base achieves two things: it allows the Hungary star to have more of an attacking input and should, in theory, mean a double-pivot to shield the defence.

Iraola wants Wirtz and Alexander Isak to work in tandem up top and he will certainly not write them off after one sub-par game in the hostile environment of Newcastle. There are huge hopes for Wirtz this coming year.

TRUST THE IRAOLA PROCESS

It’s not like football fans to overreact, is it?

After five games last season, Liverpool looked likely to storm the league but their form fell off a cliff. Iraola was brought to the club because of his proven track record to improve players. Look at the likes of Antoine Semenyo, Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen, Ilya Zabarnyi as examples of those he took from unproven to big-money sales.

Tyler Adams, Eli Junior Kroupi and Rayan may also bag big sums for Bournemouth in the not-too-distant future, though the Cherries are keen to back Marco Rose as much as possible this season and are unlikely to sanction a sale for one of their big attackers.

Iraola insists it is not a personnel problem that plagued his midfield last weekend – and there is no guarantee a new signing would aid that. With time, the Basque will hope to solidify the issue.

Iraola wants his players to be front-footed and believes, over the course of a season, the positives outweigh the negatives.

CHANGE FORMATION COMPLETELY

Here’s a rogue one that has been suggested this week: Iraola should change to a different system altogether.

Jeremie Frimpong and Kerkez have struggled as full backs but what if they were wing backs with less defensive responsibilities? Wirtz’s best form came in a 3-4-2-1 formation under Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen.

This one is more of a fan hope than a realistic possibility, though. Otherwise their summer-long pursuit of wide forwards would be redundant – and the club also identified Iraola because he played a system similar to that which the squad is accustomed.

GIVE THE KIDS A GO

Trusting youth players is in Iraola's identity. At his boyhood team Athletic Club, there is a long-standing policy to only have Basque players in the squad. They cannot go out and spend mega-money on a transfer target, but instead have to work with what they already have at their disposal.

Keeping this in mind, 19-year-old midfielder Trey Nyoni will be given chances to impress. The young Englishman played just 21 minutes in the Premier League last term but was a star of pre-season and deserves more chances in the coming weeks.

He is small in stature but plays with a maturity beyond his years. Daily Mail Sport has been present for many of his youth-team appearances where he showed he is an elegant midfielder who always demands possession and can dictate play from deep.

Nyoni can certainly push for minutes this term.

Another back-up option is academy graduate James McConnell. He spent the first half of last season at Ajax and the second half on the treatment table. But he is fit now and has been asked to stick around. He had agreed a loan move to Preston North End but that has been put on the back-burner for now at least.