Liverpool’s Midfield Solution: Why Klopp Points to Janelt

Ask any Liverpool supporter where this squad still feels light and the reply comes back instantly: midfield. Not more flair, not another forward. A midfielder. One who actually knits everything together.

Under Andoni Iraola, that need has become urgent. His football lives off the press. It lives off control in the middle third. Right now, Liverpool have plenty of talent in there, but not the right blend. The moving parts don’t quite lock.

Individually, the options look exciting. As a unit, they’re lopsided.

A Midfield Packed With Quality, Short on Balance

The problem is profile, not pedigree. Iraola has been handed a cluster of players who all want to do similar things.

Dominik Szoboszlai is the clearest example. He wants to hunt the ball, suffocate opponents, drive the press. In Iraola’s structure, that’s gold – but only if someone behind him is happy to sit, read the game, and take responsibility for building from deep.

Ryan Gravenberch doesn’t fit that description. He wants to carry the ball, break lines with his dribbling, arrive rather than anchor. He can change a game, but he doesn’t naturally plug the gaps Szoboszlai leaves.

Alexis Mac Allister comes closer to what Iraola needs. He can drop in, he can pass under pressure, he understands tempo. Even so, it still feels like a compromise. He’s a playmaker doing a holding job, not a natural fulcrum.

Trey Nyoni might be the ideal long-term answer. His profile suits that deeper role, and inside the club there’s genuine excitement about his ceiling. The question is timing. Is he ready to be thrown into a system that demands so much, so quickly? Or would that be rushing a talent Liverpool can’t afford to mishandle?

That’s where a stop-gap – the right stop-gap – becomes crucial.

Klopp’s Germany Call Hints at a Solution

Jurgen Klopp has just offered a pretty strong clue. For the first time, the former Liverpool manager has named his Germany senior squad. Buried among the headline names was one surprise: Vitaly Janelt.

To those who watch Brentford closely, it wasn’t a shock at all. Janelt has been quietly outstanding. He’s earned that first international call-up the hard way.

So far this Premier League season, he has covered the third-most distance of any player: 58.8 kilometres. That’s not just running for the sake of it; it’s constant availability, constant work without the ball, constant pressing triggers. On top of that, he ranks fifth in the league for interceptions at 3.20 per 90 minutes, a number that underlines his reading of the game as much as his engine.

That combination is exactly why Klopp has turned to him. High-intensity football needs players who don’t just buy into the idea, but embody it physically and tactically. Janelt does both.

And that’s precisely why he looks such a clean fit for Iraola’s Liverpool.

Why Janelt Fits Iraola’s Liverpool

Iraola wants a side that harries, compresses space, and then uses the ball with clarity once it’s won. Janelt ticks each of those boxes.

He can sit in front of the back line, screen passing lanes, and still step out aggressively when the trigger comes. He’s comfortable joining the build-up from deep, allowing Szoboszlai to push higher and do what he does best. He gives Mac Allister the freedom to play where he hurts teams most, rather than where he simply patches holes.

Crucially, at 28, Janelt is right in his prime without being a long-term obstacle. He wouldn’t block Nyoni’s pathway; he would buy him time. Time to grow physically. Time to learn the nuances of Iraola’s structure. Time to make sure that when he does step in, he stays in.

That matters. Liverpool have been here before – promoting talent a touch too early, then asking them to ride out the storm. A specialist like Janelt allows them to avoid that trap.

Klopp has already made his judgement by rewarding the Brentford man at international level. The numbers back it up. The style fits. The age profile works.

For a Liverpool side crying out for balance in the middle, the answer might already be running himself into the ground every weekend in the Premier League – and now, finally, for Germany too.