We’ve been a couple of signings behind for what feels like four seasons, and that’s the bit that sticks in the throat. Not because Liverpool never spend, but because the spending rarely lands exactly where the squad is creaking loudest. So every summer becomes a patch-up, then the patch needs patching, and suddenly you’re carrying the same needs into the next window again.
After we went close in 2021/22, you could see the warning lights straight away. The midfield had run itself into the ground. Apart from Darwin arriving, the refresh didn’t really come, and the whole Tchouameni chase ended with Arthur Melo on loan, who barely got on the pitch. That wasn’t just bad luck. It was a sign we were trying to solve a structural issue with a stopgap.
Midfield fixes that never quite finished
The following summer, the club did at least do the big midfield rebuild job that had been put off. But even then, it felt like we were still responding rather than getting ahead of it. Endo as a short-term defensive midfield answer might have made sense in the moment, yet it also spoke to a wider pattern: we weren’t landing the long-term “first choice” solution in the role.
And while the midfield was being overhauled, centre-back was left alone despite the obvious risks. When you’re already managing the fitness of Konate and living with the reality that Matip and Gomez have had disrupted seasons, it doesn’t take a genius to see why another centre-half felt like a priority. Matip’s season going pop only underlined it, and we ended up relying on Quansah stepping up, which is great for him but not ideal planning.
Centre-back and the rolling carry-over list
Fast forward again and the same shopping list keeps reappearing: another centre-back, a proper defensive midfielder, and the early groundwork for eventual successors to the biggest names. Under Arne Slot and Hughes, the idea was clearly to move things on, but you still ended up with gaps remaining, and that’s where the frustration comes from.
Why it keeps feeling like catch-up
The brutal part is how quickly priorities multiply when you miss. One summer you need a defensive midfielder and a centre-back. The next summer you still need them, plus you’re now talking about full-back succession planning, another forward, and whatever else changes with form, age and availability. If you’re always starting the window with four or five “musts”, you’ve already made life hard for yourself.
That’s why the squad management since 2020 feels poor to some of us. Not because every individual decision is indefensible, but because the overall timing has left Liverpool constantly running behind the game instead of shaping it.
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