Robbie Fowler has implored Liverpool to address one of their biggest ‘problems’ of recent years and ensure that there’s adequate squad depth at Anfield by the end of the current transfer window.
The Reds went big in the marketplace a year ago by investing almost £450m in new signings, with much of that figure offset by player sales in a summer of massive upheaval in L4.
However, Andoni Iraola has inherited a squad shorn of several players through injuries of varying severity, although he’ll gradually get his World Cup contingent back in the building over the next month.
Speaking from New York, where Liverpool play Wrexham in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday night, Fowler stressed the need for his former club to have sufficient competition for places so that every player is kept ‘on their toes’ and high standards are maintained on a daily basis.
He said (via BBC Sport): “When you look at Liverpool across the last decade, one of the problems that we’ve had is that the first 11 is more than capable but the argument that people have is the squad depth.
“I’m a big believer in getting the squad right because it gives everyone a lift and keeps people on their toes, knowing that if you’re not performing, someone else could do the job.
“Go back to the days of Phil Neal and he’ll tell you stories about how players would never want to get injured because they knew that if someone else came, they wouldn’t get their place back. You need that mentality and I think that has a real knock-on effect on standards.”
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Injuries and form will ensure that a team’s starting XI is ever-changing, but Iraola will probably already know the bulk of the starting XI for his first official game in charge of Liverpool against Newcastle on 23 August.
In an era where the demands on elite footballers have never been more intense, the importance of squad depth has grown, with a rule of thumb that every place in the first XI should have at least one player ready to step in when needed.
That’s certainly not the case at centre-back right now, with the Reds currently having no senior players available in that position. There are also gaps in terms of depth on the right wing and at right-back, although Calvin Ramsay’s impressive performance against Sunderland offers hope that he could have a bigger part to play in 2026/27.
The graphic below illustrates a ‘full-strength’ Liverpool starting XI in the hypothetical scenario of having a full squad available, along with a ‘backup’ team of players who’d be next in line to step in if required.
Players such as Ramsay, Federico Chiesa, Trey Nyoni, Freddie Woodman and Jayden Danns don’t feature in the graphic, which illustrates how impressive Liverpool’s squad depth is if Iraola had the full deck to call upon, but that’d be a utopian scenario in this era of relentless fixture commitments.
Also, while some of the starting berths are 50/50 if everyone were available (Gakpo or Ngumoha on the left? Isak or Ekitike up front?), there are other positions where the gulf between starters and backups is more pronounced.
The Reds are heading into another season of juggling four different competitions, thus making it imperative that the transfer window ends with the head coach having sufficient depth to call upon in terms of both quantity and quality.
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