Liverpool’s Left-Back Dilemma: Kerkez Under Pressure
Liverpool’s summer of change already feels incomplete. Big names arrived, others moved on, but one problem position just won’t go away.
A turbulent rebuild, limited surgery
Liverpool spent heavily last year, dropping more than £450 million on new faces. Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz headlined a lavish window that was supposed to push the club back towards the elite. Instead, the team lost its way.
Under Arne Slot, Liverpool slumped to fifth in the Premier League. The squad looked expensively assembled yet strangely directionless, short on both clarity and edge. Slot paid with his job, but the legacy of that chaotic rebuild still hangs over Anfield.
This summer, the turnover was far more modest. Only four new players came through the door. Ronald Araujo and Bradley Barcola added quality, but the squad, by and large, remains the one that stumbled last season.
Now Andoni Iraola has been tasked with making sense of it. His arrival is the biggest change of all, a reset on the touchline. Yet Wednesday night’s 2–1 win over Atletico Madrid underlined a blunt reality: this Liverpool side still has obvious weak points. One of them is at left-back.
Kerkez under the microscope
Milos Kerkez was supposed to be the solution. Brought in last summer as the long-term heir to Andy Robertson, the Hungarian arrived with Slot’s full backing. On paper, it made sense: young, dynamic, aggressive going forward.
On the pitch, the story has been very different.
Even with Slot determined to usher in a new era, Robertson kept forcing his way into the team. The Scotsman simply performed better. He read games quicker, defended smarter, and offered the kind of reliability Kerkez has yet to match. Some supporters even wondered if Liverpool might reward Robertson with a new contract, so central did he remain to their play.
That never materialised. Instead, Kostas Tsimikas returned to Anfield to serve as Kerkez’s understudy. The message was clear: Liverpool were doubling down on their 22-year-old project at left-back.
Then came Atletico.
Against Diego Simeone’s side, Kerkez’s flaws were laid bare. He struggled positionally, switched off at key moments, and his decision-making without the ball repeatedly invited pressure. The defining lapse came when he allowed Marcos Llorente to escape him, a mistake that directly led to Liverpool conceding.
The win masked the damage on the scoreboard. It didn’t hide the warning signs.
A January decision Liverpool can’t dodge
Liverpool’s squad still has holes all over the starting XI. Iraola inherits a group that needs upgrades in several areas if it is to keep pace with domestic and European rivals. Standing still until the end of the season would be a huge risk.
Talk has already started about future windows. Ben Jacobs has even suggested Liverpool are looking ahead to replacing Alexis Mac Allister in 2027. That kind of long-term planning is important, but the more urgent issue is staring them in the face on the left side of their defence.
If Kerkez continues to deliver erratic performances, patience in the stands will wear thin quickly. The fanbase already saw enough against Atletico to know this isn’t just a bad night; it’s part of a wider pattern. As a wing-back in a system with three central defenders, he looks a useful weapon. In a back four, where concentration, positioning and defensive maturity are non-negotiable, he looks exposed.
Liverpool cannot afford that kind of uncertainty in a season where the margins will be brutal.
By the time January rolls around, the club may have no choice but to act. An experienced, defensively assured left-back should be climbing to the top of their shopping list. The question now is simple: do Liverpool treat Kerkez as a long-term project who needs shelter, or as a gamble they can no longer afford in a back four chasing trophies?
