Andoni Iraola has to do something brave - and maybe completely crazy. €600k-a-week's worth of talent should be benched.
Liverpool's win over Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday showed everyone some things. Thankfully, most of them were positive as the Reds qualified for the next round of the Carabao Cup despite heavily rotating their team.
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Was it the perfect performance? No, but it wasn't ever going to be. Not when you're shaking things up to that extent. The important part is that Liverpool still found a way to win.
And while both defence and attack raised questions to be answered, it was the midfield that was particularly notable. Liverpool started with Trey Nyoni and Alexis Mac Allister in there.
It was absolutely fantastic.
Trey Nyoni and Alexis Mac Allister
Perhaps it shouldn't be a shock that this pairing worked. On paper, it makes the most sense of any other options - their playing styles simply mesh together well.
Nyoni likes to sit deep, play a little cautiously, keep things solid, and tick the team over with the ball. Mac Allister wants to venture forward but also looks to support his midfield partner on and off the ball.
It's the most solid pairing and, when Mac Allister is in this form, it's one that contributes to goals, too. At a time when Liverpool are struggling to control games, this is the duo that offers them solidity.
But that creates a problem. Liverpool rewarded two midfielders with massive new contracts this year and neither of them were Nyoni or Mac Allister.
Instead, it was Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai signing those deals to be at the forefront of Liverpool's midfield. However, that's a pairing that really, really doesn't appear to work - something Iraola seems to have quickly realised.
De Telegraaf reported earlier this year that Gravenberch's new deal puts him on around €300k per week. Szoboszlai is thought to be on similar after signing his deal in the summer.
So that's €600k per week that Liverpool should, in all honesty, be leaving on the bench for now. They're simply not the pairing that offers what the team needs right now and neither of them are in that pairing.
Liverpool need solidity. Neither of them offer that. In a different setup with a different plan, we imagine they'd be sensational - we've seen it at the club before - but this current setup doesn't call for either of them.
Instead, it calls for Nyoni and Mac Allister.
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