Liverpool's Right-Back Dilemma: A Risky Gamble

Liverpool spent the summer telling the world this was a smarter, more controlled rebuild. On paper, the window looked tidy: Jeremy Jacquet in from Rennes, Ronald Araujo on loan from Barcelona, a defensive unit refreshed without the chaos of wholesale change.

Then the season started, and one brutal truth cut through the optimism.

They never actually signed a right-back.

A hole everyone saw coming

The position is too important, too exposed, and too central to how Liverpool play to be left to chance. Yet that is exactly what has happened.

Calvin Ramsay was sent out on loan. Conor Bradley, whose emergence last season had injected energy and aggression down the right, suffered a serious knee injury. That left Jeremie Frimpong as the only senior natural right-back in the squad.

For a club chasing titles, that is not squad depth. It is a tightrope.

The logic from inside Liverpool was clear enough: Bradley would be back, Frimpong could carry the load, and Araujo and others could shuffle across if needed. On a spreadsheet, it looks like flexibility. In a Premier League season, it looks like a problem waiting to explode.

Carragher calls it out

Jamie Carragher did not bother to dress it up. Speaking on Stick to Football, he went straight for the heart of the issue.

“Conor Bradley got his chance and got a bad injury. My problem with it is, he's a good young player who's done really well, but if someone gets a bad injury, he's not that good that you don't replace him.

“You'd wait for Trent to come back and you'd wait for Andy Robertson to come back. Unfortunately I don't think we should be waiting for Conor Bradley to come back. You go and buy a right-back because Frimpong isn't one.

“When Conor Bradley comes back, he's then got to fight for his place and I think that's fair; but this thing of 'we've got to wait for Conor Bradley to come back' – no. We're Liverpool, one of the biggest clubs in the world.

“You can't wait for Conor Bradley. We've got to get him back and good luck to him, but they've made a massive mistake.”

Strip away the emotion and the argument stands up. Bradley is talented, brave on the ball and fearless in the duel, but building a season around his rehabilitation always looked like wishful thinking rather than elite planning.

The burden on Frimpong

Bradley’s injury is not just about a date on a medical bulletin. Players return, but the sharpness, the timing, the confidence in their body – that comes later. Liverpool cannot seriously expect him to step straight back in and hit the same level he reached before his lay-off.

So the weight falls on Frimpong.

He offers speed, incision and attacking thrust, the kind of outlet that can pin back a whole flank. Yet his recent performances have not fully settled the doubts about his defensive reliability. In this Liverpool side, the right-back cannot simply be a winger in disguise. The role demands recovery pace, positional discipline, and the ability to defend big spaces when the press is broken.

If that balance is even slightly off, the whole structure tilts.

There is another uncomfortable detail. Frimpong’s own fitness record last season was not spotless. Counting on him to play relentlessly from August to May adds another layer of risk. One muscle strain, one awkward landing, and Liverpool are back to patchwork solutions – midfielders dragged out of position, centre-backs shuffled wide, systems tweaked to cover a hole that should never have been there.

They tried that in parts of 2025/26. It did not look like the plan of a club aiming to dominate.

Cover is not the same as a solution

Liverpool did not ignore their defence this summer. Jacquet and Araujo both arrived with the promise of versatility, the ability to cover multiple roles across the back line. It sounds clever. It is useful. But it does not answer the specific question.

Premier League right-back is a specialist job now, especially in a side that wants to squeeze high, attack with numbers and still look secure in transition. Araujo can fill in, yes, but “can fill in” is not the standard Liverpool should be relying on across a full campaign.

This is where the frustration bites hardest. The weakness was obvious, the scenario predictable, the stakes enormous. Yet the club chose to trust internal options and good fortune rather than nail down a proven, ready-made right-back.

Now Andoni Iraola needs Frimpong to stay fit, grow into the role defensively and do it fast. Bradley’s eventual return will ease the strain, but the decision to wait for him was always a roll of the dice.

If this season tilts on that flank, Liverpool will know exactly where they misjudged the summer.