Andoni Iraola's Liverpool: Urgent Need for Wingers as Season Approaches

Andoni Iraola is starting his Liverpool reign with a blunt admission: he doesn’t have enough wingers – and the season is almost here.

The new head coach has watched a flurry of big-name departures, a handful of eye-catching arrivals, and a transfer market that still hasn’t given him what he wants most: wide attackers.

Liverpool light out wide as window tension grows

Liverpool saw a £50m bid for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh rejected earlier this week and have sounded out Paris St-Germain over Ibrahim Mbaye. PSG’s Bradley Barcola remains the primary target as the club push to add pace and threat on the flanks before the window closes.

For Iraola, the timing is the problem as much as the targets.

“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,” he said when pressed on Liverpool’s business.

That hasn’t happened. And he knows it.

“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 frustration is clear, but so is the realism. The market will drag on. He has to live with it.

Big arrivals, bigger exits

Since replacing Arne Slot, Iraola has already overseen some significant changes. Victor Munoz arrived in a £34.5m deal, while Ronald Araujo came in on loan from Barcelona to bolster the defence. Jeremy Jacquet, the French centre-half signed from Rennes for £60m, is also now in the building, though that transfer was agreed back in January.

The outgoings, though, have ripped out some of the club’s core.

• Mohamed Salah
• Andy Robertson
• Ibrahima Konate

All left over the summer. Curtis Jones is in Italy, finalising a £30m move to Inter Milan. Experience, leadership, and reliability have walked out of the door in a single window.

So when Iraola is asked what he needs, he doesn’t hesitate.

“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.

“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.”

The message is sharp: Liverpool will not buy just to make up numbers. But they do need help.

“We will definitely sign some players”

Speaking to Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports, Iraola underlined the urgency.

“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 in depth. Thin in certain positions. Thin for a club that expects to compete on all fronts.

This is not the first time he has sounded that warning. During Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the USA, Iraola voiced similar concerns about defensive options. Inside Anfield, there is an acceptance that the final stretch of the window will be hectic. It almost has to be.

Curtis Jones: a departure understood

One of the most emotional moves of the summer is close to completion. Jones, a boyhood Red, is on the brink of joining Inter Milan.

“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,” Iraola revealed.

“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.”

There is no bitterness in his words, only acceptance. Jones wants a different role, a different path. Liverpool, reshaping under a new coach, are moving in another direction.

And so Iraola waits. For wingers. For deals to drop. For the squad that will actually carry his ideas into the season.

The clock is ticking towards 1 September. How different will Liverpool look by then?