Liverpool's Injury Crisis: Iraola's Center-Back Dilemma

Andoni Iraola hasn’t even kicked a ball in the Premier League as Liverpool manager and already finds himself staring at a problem every recent Anfield boss knows too well.

An injury crisis. At center-back. Again.

A new season, the same old headache

In a fortnight, Liverpool will be preparing for their 2026/27 opener at St James’ Park. It doesn’t feel like a club ready to explode into a new era. Mohamed Salah still hasn’t been replaced on the right, with Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye yet to arrive, if they arrive at all.

Iraola at least has attacking patches. Rio Ngumoha’s emergence and Federico Chiesa’s pedigree mean the right flank can be covered in the short term.

The back line is a different story.

Before news broke of Ronald Araujo’s impending move to Anfield, Liverpool were staring at the prospect of beginning a Premier League season with just one fit senior center-back. One.

Joe Gomez is already ruled out. Giovanni Leoni is still working his way back from an ACL injury and hasn’t rejoined full training. Jeremy Jacquet, despite reporting early for preseason, has yet to play a single minute this summer.

There is doubt over whether the Frenchman will even be involved against Monaco. If he misses that Anfield friendly, the most optimistic reading is a 45–minute run-out against Como next weekend. That would be his only real preparation before a first taste of English football away at Newcastle.

That is not a launchpad. It’s a risk.

Wrapping Van Dijk and Araujo in cotton wool

So Iraola is left with one immediate, unglamorous task: protect Virgil van Dijk and Araujo at all costs over the next two weeks and hope they can build some kind of understanding on the fly.

Liverpool have lived through injury chaos before, but this one carries a different edge. It feels avoidable. Anyone glancing at the squad at the start of the summer could see the back four needed reinforcing. Instead, Araujo’s arrival has the feel of a late, opportunistic fix rather than the centerpiece of a carefully plotted rebuild.

Even with the Uruguayan on board, the margin for error is wafer-thin. One more setback and Iraola will be rummaging around for emergency solutions in the most unforgiving area of the pitch.

He might have to borrow a page from Arne Slot’s playbook.

Slot’s makeshift blueprint

Slot lived this reality last season. Leoni’s serious injury in September left him with three center-backs for the rest of the campaign and a schedule that never eased up.

The Dutchman didn’t panic. He improvised.

"Ryan (Gravenberch) and Wata (Endo) can play there," he said early in the season, cutting straight through the concern. "So it is not like all of a sudden we don't have options in that position anymore."

Endo’s versatility is no secret. Across his three years at Liverpool he has already dropped into the back line when required, reading the game, tidying up, doing the unglamorous work. But he has only just returned to training after his own injury. Throwing him into a hybrid role at St James’ Park, against a Newcastle side that rarely takes a backward step, would be a serious demand.

If Endo isn’t ready, the onus shifts to Gravenberch.

The Dutch midfielder has dabbled at center-back, but only briefly. His most notable outing there came in January’s 6-0 demolition of Qarabag, a night so lopsided it told Liverpool very little about his suitability for the role in a Premier League cauldron.

Still, when the options run dry, managers reach for what they have, not what they want.

A fragile platform for a new era

Strip it back and Iraola’s reality is stark. Unless Jacquet suddenly accelerates his readiness, Liverpool are one injury away from fielding a makeshift center-back pairing on opening day. Van Dijk and Araujo must stay fit. There is no Plan C that doesn’t involve shifting a midfielder into the back line.

It would not be a good look for a club of Liverpool’s stature to walk out at Newcastle with Gravenberch or Endo anchoring the defense from the start. Yet that scenario is close enough to feel real.

So the early weeks of Iraola’s reign may not be defined by his pressing triggers or attacking patterns, but by something far more basic: whether his two senior center-backs can survive intact long enough for the rest of the squad to catch up.