Liverpool's Midfield Concerns: Carragher's Warning Ahead of New Season
Jamie Carragher has sounded the alarm over Liverpool’s midfield, warning that Andoni Iraola’s new-look side is nowhere near ready to mount a serious Premier League title challenge.
The former Reds defender, speaking on the latest episode of The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet, believes a problem that dogged Liverpool all last season has simply not been fixed.
New era, old problem
Liverpool are just over a week away from the start of the 2026/27 campaign and heading into yet another reset. Arne Slot has gone after a disappointing year that ended with the club clinging onto fifth place and the final Champions League spot – a stark comedown from their title win the season before. Iraola has been brought in to jolt the squad back to the top, not just to stabilise it.
He has not been handed a whirlwind summer. Victor Munoz and Ronald Araujo are the only fresh faces through the door so far, with Jeremy Jacquet also on his way after a deal with Rennes was wrapped up back in February. Mohamed Salah has departed, leaving a gaping hole out wide, and Liverpool are still chasing Bradley Barcola as a replacement.
But while the transfer noise has centred on the wings, Carragher’s eyes are fixed on the middle of the pitch.
“Space everywhere” in midfield
“The midfield issue for me is still a huge problem for Liverpool,” Carragher said. He hasn’t trawled every minute of pre-season, but the two games he did watch – against Leeds and Monaco – were enough to harden his view.
The same flaw that haunted Slot’s side was still there. Space. Too much of it.
“The problem Liverpool had last season was there was space everywhere in Liverpool’s midfield. That has not gone away at all,” he warned.
Iraola appears ready to lean into an aggressive, high-energy engine room. Dominik Szoboszlai, who many expected to operate as a classic No.10, is being used deeper, effectively as a central midfielder alongside Ryan Gravenberch. On paper, it screams dynamism. On the pitch, Carragher sees a risk.
“That’s only going to get bigger with the deployment of [Dominik] Szoboszlai in midfield – it looks like they’re going to play him, rather than as a number 10, almost as a central midfield player alongside [Ryan] Gravenberch and that is just pure box-to-box.”
Too much quality, not enough balance?
Carragher isn’t questioning the calibre of the individuals. Quite the opposite. He namechecks Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz and makes it clear he rates them all.
“When you name six or seven of Liverpool’s players, you can’t say they’re not top players – you can’t say Gravenberch is not a really good player, or [Florian] Wirtz, or Szoboszlai,” he said.
The concern lies in the blend. Three adventurous, technically gifted, forward-thinking midfielders all wanting to surge, combine, and create. Little in the way of natural protection.
“But as a midfield three, I look at that and think, oh no – there’s almost too much quality, but they all want to go and play and run. And even in pre-season, the space is coming through the middle.”
For Carragher, that picture is all too familiar: opponents driving through gaps, defenders exposed, games becoming stretched when Liverpool least want them to be.
And unless Iraola finds a way to close those gaps quickly, the club icon is clear – that midfield imbalance will slam the door on any realistic attempt to wrestle back the Premier League crown this season.
