The way I see it, some of the criticism about Liverpool’s spending completely ignores the context of what the squad actually needed at the time. This wasn’t a summer for grabbing a couple of “nice options” and topping up the bench. It was a summer where too many key positions were wobbling at the same time.
If you believe Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz wanted to go, if Andy Robertson’s legs were going, if Darwin Nunez wasn’t at the level required, if Diogo Jota was always injured, if Mohamed Salah is naturally getting on, and if Ibrahima Konate wasn’t giving any real sign he’d sign a new deal, then you don’t patch that with cheap depth. You replace starters. Proper ones.
Back-up full-backs? Not for me
There’s a big difference between “we need cover” and “we need a new first choice”. Liverpool, in this argument, were firmly in the second camp. When the level drops too far when your first-choice full-back isn’t available or isn’t at their best, it stops being a squad-building debate and becomes a team-building one.
That’s why the idea that the club should have spent less on “lesser” players feels backwards. Lesser players don’t solve first-choice problems, they just make you feel better about the bench on paper.
Volume of needs made it look messy
The real issue wasn’t that money was wasted. It’s that Liverpool needed a lot, all at once: starting full-backs, two strikers, a midfielder, and at least one centre-back. When that many needs stack up, even good recruitment can look like panic to people who only want to judge it through a single window.
And that’s before you even get into the one deal that apparently couldn’t be finished: Marc Guehi. If you’ve got a clear defensive target and it doesn’t get over the line, it always leaves a bit of a “nearly” feeling hanging over everything else, even when the rest makes sense.
Judging it as “bad spending” doesn’t add up
The other part that gets ignored is how fans reacted in the moment. Plenty of us were genuinely buzzing when those names were announced. Nobody was calling it reckless then. So if you’re now saying Liverpool should’ve spent less, the obvious question is: on who, exactly? And how does that improve the first XI?
For me, if the signings were essential, then going cheaper just means going backwards. The hope, and the expectation in this view, is that they all come good because they were bought to start, not to make up the numbers.
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