NASHVILLE, USA - Saturday, July 25, 2026: Liverpool's head coach Andoni Iraola (L) and first team coach Tommy Elphick during a friendly match between Liverpool FC and Sunderland AFC at the Nashville SC Stadium. Liverpool won 4-2. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
NASHVILLE, USA - Saturday, July 25, 2026: Liverpool's head coach Andoni Iraola (L) and first team coach Tommy Elphick during a friendly match between Liverpool FC and Sunderland AFC at the Nashville SC Stadium. Liverpool won 4-2. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Liverpool are desperately short of defenders in pre-season and that has led first-team coach Tommy Elphick to fill in during training sessions this summer.
Andoni Iraola was unable to use either Jeremy Jacquet or Giovanni Leoni while on tour in the United States and Joe Gomez picked up an injury 10 minutes in.
With Virgil van Dijk beginning work at the AXA Training Centre last week instead of joining the squad in Chicago, it left 18-year-olds Ifeanyi Ndukwe and Mor Talla Ndiaye as the only recognised centre-backs.
Ndukwe played almost every minute of the three friendlies and Iraola turned to left-back Luke Chambers as his regular partner.
NEW YORK, USA - Wednesday, July 29, 2026: Liverpool's first-team coach Tommy Elphick before a pre-season friendly match between Liverpool FC and Wrexham AFC at Yankee Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
NEW YORK, USA - Wednesday, July 29, 2026: Liverpool's first-team coach Tommy Elphick before a pre-season friendly match between Liverpool FC and Wrexham AFC at Yankee Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
But while Liverpool could muddle through against Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds, they needed more bodies in training – with the Mail‘s Lewis Steele reporting that Elphick was forced to “put on a bib” and “make up the numbers.”
Elphick was a centre-back during a lengthy playing career with Brighton, Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Huddersfield, and though he was forced to retire in 2021, he is still only 38.
His experience has allowed him to take a hands-on role in training sessions, particularly as Iraola and his staff work through set-piece routines.
It is Elphick who will specialise in work on defending set-pieces, with fellow first-team coach Shaun Cooper devising attacking routines along with first-team set-piece analyst Lewis Mahoney.
The hope is that the situation will now ease with Liverpool back on Merseyside and able to reintegrate Van Dijk, who should be ready to start against Monaco on August 9.
He is slated to be partnered by Jacquet at the start of the new campaign, and the Frenchman should be able to step up his work after his fitness was managed on tour due to a previous shoulder issue.
Liverpool need to sign a new defender ASAP
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, August 31, 2024: Bournemouth's Illya Zabarnyi during the FA Premier League match between Everton FC and AFC Bournemouth at Goodison Park. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, August 31, 2024: Bournemouth's Illya Zabarnyi during the FA Premier League match between Everton FC and AFC Bournemouth at Goodison Park. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Leoni is edging closer to a return but is yet to resume team training, and there is a wide-held belief that Liverpool still need to enter the market for a new defender.
A versatile option, similar to but more reliable than Gomez, would be the ideal addition, providing Iraola with cover at both centre-back and in the full-back areas.
There will be fewer candidates in that respect, however, and Paris Saint-Germain centre-back Illia Zabarnyi is among the players linked having already thrived under Iraola at Bournemouth.
Elphick’s presence in training is certainly useful, but that he has been required to fill in only sums up how short Liverpool have been left so soon into the new head coach’s reign.
Football – Pre-Season – Liverpool FC v Leeds United FC
Football – Pre-Season – Liverpool FC v Leeds United FC
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LONDON, ENGLAND - Saturday, September 27, 2025: Liverpool's substitute Cody Gakpo before the FA Premier League match between Crystal Palace FC and Liverpool FC at Selhurst Park. Crystal Palace won 2-1. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Szoboszlai, Ndukwe, Morrison collage
Szoboszlai, Ndukwe, Morrison collage