The feeling I can’t shake is that Liverpool have looked at what’s available, looked at the money, and decided there just wasn’t a deal worth doing right now. Not a proper one, anyway. The one exception sounded like Geertruida, where it genuinely felt like something could happen before Sunderland pulled the plug. After that, it’s been a case of sticking rather than twisting.

Making do might be the point

If you lay it out calmly, you can see the argument the hierarchy are making. Right-back: we’ve still got Ramsay, and Frimpong is supposedly not far away. Centre-back: Virgil, Konate and Nallo are there, with Gomez expected back soon. Left-back: Robbo and Kerkez, and Beck due back a bit later. That’s six fit defenders, with three returning before the season’s done.

So maybe the thinking is simple: Arne Slot has to use what he’s got. Only Leoni and Bradley are framed as out for the season, and if the club didn’t want to do a panic signing off the back of that, you can sort of accept it. No one wants another short-term body who doesn’t fit, blocks a younger lad, and is then hard to shift.

The right-back situation still nags at you

That said, it’s hard not to look at the Bradley injury and think we’ve made life needlessly awkward. Slot’s apparent lack of faith in Ramsay is the key detail here. If the manager doesn’t really trust him, then “cover” isn’t cover at all.

That’s why the Luca Stephenson idea makes sense to me. Bring him back from Dundee, let him be an option you’re actually willing to use, and send Ramsay the other way for minutes. It’s not glamorous, it’s not headline stuff, but it’s the kind of practical move that stops you scrambling week to week.

Centre-back: one injury away from chaos

Where it gets properly uncomfortable is centre-half. I’d have liked a centre-back in now, not because the current lads aren’t top class, but because the workload becomes relentless. Virgil and Ibou end up having to play nearly every game, every competition, and that’s where trouble starts in any squad.

I get the other side, too. Maybe they’d rather wait for Jacquet than bring in a lesser option who isn’t suited to what Slot wants. But it leaves us on a knife edge. If Virgil goes down, it’s not just “we’ll cope for a couple of matches”. It’s season-altering. And when you’re leaning on a 34-year-old who’s been asked to play every minute, that’s a big ask, however brilliant he is.

Written by MK Scouser: 3 February 2026

Tags: transfers injury efl