Vitaly Janelt: The Missing Piece for Liverpool's Midfield

Ask any Liverpool supporter where this squad still feels light and the answer comes back quickly: midfield. Not in terms of numbers, but in terms of balance. The engine room that Andoni Iraola is trying to build simply isn’t running in sync.

His football demands it. Iraola wants an aggressive press, a side that can squeeze opponents and then calmly dictate the game from the centre of the pitch. At the moment, Liverpool can do parts of that. Just not all of it at once.

Individually, the pieces make sense. Together, they don’t quite click.

A midfield full of talent, short on harmony

The issue is profile, not quality. Iraola has a cluster of midfielders who all want to do similar things, and not enough who naturally sit in and stitch everything together.

Dominik Szoboszlai is built for chaos. He wants to press, to hunt, to drag the game into the sort of frantic rhythm that suits Iraola’s ideas. He fits perfectly if there is someone behind him who will hold, take the ball off the centre-backs and control the tempo from deep.

Ryan Gravenberch is not that player. He wants to carry the ball, drive past opponents, play on the half-turn. Asking him to be the permanent anchor wastes what he does best.

Alexis Mac Allister comes closest to that deep-lying role. He can build from the back, he reads the game well, and he’s tactically intelligent. Even so, it still feels like a compromise rather than a natural solution.

The ideal profile might actually be Trey Nyoni. Calm, composed, technically secure, he looks like the sort of midfielder who could grow into that job. The problem is timing. Throwing a youngster into that responsibility too early can stall a career as quickly as it can launch one.

So Liverpool need a bridge. A temporary solution who doesn’t block Nyoni, but buys him time.

Enter Vitaly Janelt

That’s where a Jurgen Klopp favourite suddenly looks like the answer.

Klopp, now in charge of Germany, has named his first senior squad. Among the more eye-catching inclusions is Brentford’s Vitaly Janelt, rewarded with his first call-up to the national team.

He deserves it. Janelt has quietly become one of the Premier League’s most industrious and reliable midfielders. This season he has covered the third-most distance in the division, racking up 58.8 km, and he sits fifth for interceptions with 3.20 per 90 minutes. Those are numbers that scream intensity, awareness, and work without the ball.

That is exactly why Klopp has turned to him. And it is exactly why Liverpool should be looking in his direction too.

Janelt thrives in high-octane systems. He presses, he screens, he plugs gaps, and he keeps the ball moving. He doesn’t need to be the star; he just makes the structure work. For a coach like Iraola, who wants his team to suffocate opponents and then play, that profile is gold.

At 28, Janelt is in his prime. Old enough to bring reliability, young enough to handle the physical demands of Iraola’s style. Crucially, he doesn’t shut the door on Nyoni. He simply ensures Liverpool don’t have to rush a teenager into a role that can define games and seasons.

He gives the kid a runway instead of a cliff edge.

In a midfield packed with flair and forward thrust, Liverpool are missing the one player who lets everyone else be themselves. Klopp has already shown what he thinks of Janelt by pulling him into the Germany setup.

If Iraola wants his Liverpool to finally look like his team, this could be the signing that makes the whole picture come into focus.