Liverpool have just one senior specialist right-back in their squad, but he remains sidelined with a long-term injury. Heading into the new season, the club are gambling with their options.
Conor Bradley would be the undisputed starter for Andoni Iraola if not for his ongoing rehabilitation from a serious knee injury, which will see him miss the start of the season.
In his absence, Liverpool’s head coach is left with a player who thrives as a wingback, two centre-backs who can shift across, an unproven backup, and a handful of midfielders.
For a club that should be positioning itself to win honours every season, the right-back position is fragile and has become another transfer gamble from Liverpool.
Liverpool opt for hybrid defender over right-back specialist
Ronald Araujo poses at AXA Training Centre on August 10, 2026 in Kirkby, England. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Ronald Araujo poses at AXA Training Centre on August 10, 2026 in Kirkby, England. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Liverpool’s defence as a whole needed investing in this summer and it will again next year if soon-to-be free agents Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez are not handed contract extensions.
Jeremy Jacquet effectively replaced Ibrahima Konate in the squad, but with Giovanni Leoni still on the comeback from an ACL tear, and Gomez suffering another injury, reinforcing at centre-back took priority.
While reports pointed towards a hybrid defender – someone capable of filling in across both centre-back and right-back – it was hardly the skills of a full-back Liverpool prioritised.
Instead, they opted for Barcelona captain Ronald Araujo, who will have an important role to play this season, but he is not a right-back by trade.
It means, as it stands, Liverpool start the season without a right-back specialist, as Bradley is still sidelined and Jeremie Frimpong is best suited to the wingback/wing role.
Earlier this year, Jamie Carragher told the Echo as much, saying: “I think he has done OK. But for me, I think Frimpong should be the back-up right-winger to the one that we buy in the summer.”
Add their respective injury records into the equation, and you have two players Liverpool consider ‘starters’ having missed a combined 53 games last season.
Calvin Ramsay, meanwhile, is not at the level to assume the role beyond pre-season.
Before the campaign even starts, you are counting the club’s losses at full-back and how that will take its toll on Iraola’s squad, as there is no guarantee Frimpong can stay fit or that Bradley adjusts quickly on his comeback.
Long-term trust, short-term gamble
BURNLEY, ENGLAND - Sunday, September 14, 2025: Liverpool's Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong celebrating a penalty being awarded during the FA Premier League match between Burnley FC and Liverpool FC at Turf Moor. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
BURNLEY, ENGLAND - Sunday, September 14, 2025: Liverpool's Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong celebrating a penalty being awarded during the FA Premier League match between Burnley FC and Liverpool FC at Turf Moor. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Early on in pre-season, Iraola was asked if right-back was an area to address; he said: “I think it depends on Conor’s situation.
“In the end, if you have a fully fit, healthy Conor Bradley, we are very happy, ready to go, and we would not be asking ourselves these questions.
“I think it’s a situation that is tricky, because we trust Conor in the long term, we know we want him to be our right-back, but right now he is still, I would say, a little bit far from returning.”
A long-term fit, but clear short-term concerns in the squad Iraola inherited.
With full-backs proving vital to his style of play by adding width and stretching the opposition, creating chances from the flanks and being there to overlap/underlap, Bradley and Milos Kerkez more than fit the bill.
Both are physically capable of locking down an opposing winger – not quite Frimpong’s strongest suit – while progressing the ball up the pitch at speed, which isn’t the leading asset of a hybrid like Araujo.
Few players are perfect fits – Trent Alexander-Arnold had glaring holes in his game – but the hope will be Frimpong can prove his suitability and fitness after the struggles of his debut season.
But with no guarantee on the player Bradley will be when he returns, the Reds are playing with fire.
A season-long reliance on Conor Bradley’s long-term recovery
LONDON, ENGLAND - Thursday, January 8, 2026: Liverpool's Conor Bradley receives treatment during the FA Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Liverpool FC at the Emirates Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LONDON, ENGLAND - Thursday, January 8, 2026: Liverpool's Conor Bradley receives treatment during the FA Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Liverpool FC at the Emirates Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Bradley has been sidelined since January after suffering significant damage to both bone and ligaments in his left knee, and a return to team training is still not on the horizon.
And coming off at least 10 months on the sidelines – should he return by October – Bradley will need to be carefully managed when he is back in the side.
It still leaves Liverpool gambling on their sole specialist to find his groove and not suffer further setbacks on his eventual return to the side.
He cannot be the season-long solution, and it already leaves Iraola one step closer to compromising what he wants from his right-back to accommodate the lack of natural depth.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, August 8, 2026: Liverpool's head coach Andoni Iraola during a pre-season friendly match between Liverpool FC and AS Monaco FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, August 8, 2026: Liverpool's head coach Andoni Iraola during a pre-season friendly match between Liverpool FC and AS Monaco FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Utilising Araujo or Gomez as full-backs in isolated games is understandable, but Liverpool risk making them, or a midfielder, take on the responsibilities for yet another season.
In a campaign with more than 50 games across the Premier League, Champions League, and cups, forcing Iraola to constantly tweak his demands based on which ‘right-back’ is fit isn’t just a compromise; it’s self-sabotage.
With a few weeks left in the transfer window, there remains the slightest hope Liverpool will spring into action to address this particular hole in the squad, but as it stands, they have taken a huge gamble by only signing a hybrid defender.
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LONDON, ENGLAND - Saturday, August 6, 2022: Liverpool's Darwin Núñez (R) celebrates with team-mate Mohamed Salah after scoring his side's first goal to level the score 1-1 during the FA Premier League match between Fulham FC and Liverpool FC at Craven Cottage. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)