Liverpool's Defensive Woes Exposed Again
Jamie Carragher watched Liverpool’s season unravel almost before it had even begun.
Barely five minutes into their Premier League opener at St James’ Park, the old problems were back, and Newcastle United did not need a second invitation to expose them.
Liverpool were caught high and loose in their own half, possession coughed up in a dangerous area. William Osula pounced, driving into a vast stretch of green with red shirts scattered behind him. One simple pass later and Anthony Elanga was racing in behind a disjointed backline, coolly sliding his finish past Alisson Becker.
Newcastle 1, Liverpool’s familiar flaw 1.
Carragher’s warning comes true
Carragher had spent the build-up to the new campaign sounding the alarm. Liverpool, he argued, were far too easy to slice through in midfield. It took less than five minutes of competitive action for that warning to look prophetic.
The Sky Sports pundit went straight to X after Elanga’s opener, his frustration boiling over as Liverpool’s midfield surged forward and left the defence exposed once more.
“LFC midfield all bombing forward – happened all pre season, madness!” he wrote, summing up what many Liverpool supporters were thinking as they watched the same movie play out again.
This was supposed to be the reset. Instead, it felt like a rerun.
A soft centre left untouched
Last season’s numbers were damning enough. Liverpool shipped 53 Premier League goals in 2025/26, a staggering tally for a side with ambitions of challenging at the top. Opponents repeatedly walked through the middle of the pitch, exploiting a soft centre that never truly hardened.
You would expect such a glaring weakness to shape an entire summer strategy. A top-class defensive midfielder, a genuine shield in front of the back four, looked less like a luxury and more like a non-negotiable.
Yet here we are on 23 August, the window into its final stretch, and that key position remains unfilled.
Reports from Lewis Steele have already cooled talk of a big-money move for Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, a player many had earmarked as the obvious solution. The link has faded just as the need has become even more stark.
Liverpool continue to pursue Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola, an exciting attacking option, but the imbalance is hard to ignore. The squad still cries out for an elite number 6, someone to plug the gaps that Newcastle so ruthlessly exploited in those chaotic opening minutes.
Finding that player at a sensible price between now and Tuesday week feels like a huge ask.
Andoni Iraola will surely have delivered some sharp words in the dressing room at half-time at St James’ Park. The next conversation, though, may be even more pointed – with Richard Hughes and the recruitment team – because unless that midfield problem is finally fixed, how many more early goals like Elanga’s are waiting around the corner?
