Iraola's Urgent Call for Wingers at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola knows exactly what he’s missing.

Liverpool’s new head coach heads into the start of the season convinced his squad is short in one key area – out wide – and is braced for a frantic finish to the transfer window to fix it.

Iraola’s winger warning

Liverpool have already seen a £50m bid for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh knocked back this week and have sounded out Paris St-Germain’s Ibrahim Mbaye. PSG’s Bradley Barcola remains the primary target as the club hunt for a top-level wide forward before the deadline.

“As a manager, this is an easy one for me. I wanted the players for the first day on 13 July – everyone here and all the positions doubled with top-level players,” Iraola said when asked about the club’s transfer work.

He didn’t get that. Few managers do.

“But you understand how the competition works, that (the) market is open and you start the competition. We have to adapt as coaches to this situation.

“I hate these two weeks or these 10 days that we have because there is a lot of uncertainty – but not in Liverpool, everywhere. But we have to adapt.”

The message is blunt: Liverpool need wingers, and they need them fast.

“You are asking me what we need - there are certain situations that for me are clear – especially now on the wing because we don't have enough players specific to play in those positions.”

Big arrivals, big departures

Since Iraola replaced Arne Slot in the Anfield dugout, Liverpool have not exactly been quiet.

Victor Munoz arrived for £34.5m, Ronald Araujo came in on loan from Barcelona, while French centre-half Jeremy Jacquet finally joined from Rennes in a £60m deal first agreed back in January.

But the churn has been brutal at the other end of the squad list.

Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate have all left the club over the summer. Curtis Jones is in Italy, on the verge of completing a £30m move to Inter Milan.

The spine has been reshaped. The wings are still bare.

Iraola insists the club will not sign bodies just to fill shirts.

“And then in other positions, I think we have to be open-minded in the market to see situations that honestly can improve our team.

“It's not about signing because we need a player here. No, it's about improving the squad. And we have very good players already here, so to improve our very good players, you need like a specific level of player, yes.”

“We will definitely sign some players”

The Spaniard has been consistent. On the pre-season tour in the USA he spoke about defensive depth; now it is the wide areas. Internally, the expectation at Anfield is clear: the end of this window will be busy.

Speaking to Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports, Iraola did not try to play anything down.

“We will definitely sign some players. Some deals you have to wait until the end. But the end is the important picture, the one we will have on September 1. Because it is true that we are still quite thin.”

Thin, but not desperate – at least not publicly. The club are pushing for Barcola, have tested Brighton’s resolve over Minteh and explored Mbaye. The targets are specific, the profile clear. The question is whether Liverpool can land the level of winger Iraola believes his current group deserves.

Curtis Jones on the brink

Amid all of this, a homegrown story is about to close.

Jones, who came through the Liverpool academy and has long been seen as one of the club’s own, is set to leave for Inter. Iraola has already made his peace with it.

“With Curtis, you know. I think it's still not official but there is an ongoing situation. I understood with Curtis. I talked to him. I think in the first or second training session we talked.

“I value him a lot as a player. He loved this club – it was very clear since the beginning for me – but I understood that probably the outcome was going to be what it has been at the end.

“I've never hid it - for me Curtis is a very good player. A very, very good player, but I understood straight away when he talked to me about his situation. It was a situation that could happen and it looks like it is going to happen.”

One loyal midfielder out, at least one winger to come in. The shape of Iraola’s Liverpool is still forming, the window clock is ticking, and the manager has made his need brutally clear.

Now the question is whether Liverpool can deliver the wide firepower he wants before that clock hits zero.