When very intelligent people do things that don’t make sense to youlogic suggests that there is three possible explanations:
I see Liverpool’s movements -or lack thereof- in this transfer window January, which closed on Monday, and I’m wondering which of the above options applies here. I hope it’s option c.) and that everything is revealed at some point, because b.) it would mean that Michael Edwards’ genius has been vastly overrated, even by me, and a.) it would mean that I’m a fool, it’s possible, of course, but it’s not fun to contemplate.
However, there was one indisputable fact entering the January window: Liverpool needed to add one or more defenders. If you want to argue this, I’m going to use the next few paragraphs to try to convince you. If I fail, feel free to stop reading and scroll through TikTok again.
We know that Liverpool believed they needed another defender – ideally a centre-back – because They tried to sign Marc Guéhi from Crystal Palace on market closing day for around £35 million ($47m) and the deal collapsed, apparently while Guéhi was undergoing an MRI. That was in August.
Less than a month later, Giovanni Leonithe young central defender they had signed from Parma earlier in that window, suffered a cruciate ligament injury which would keep him out the rest of the season. Now they were without TWO defenders.
Then, on January 8, 2026, another defender, Conor Bradleysaw his season ended prematurely after another knee injury. Now they were without THREE defenders.
It’s not just that. Of the defenders they have, one is 34 years old (Virgil van Dijk), two others are free agents in June (Andy Robertson, Ibrahima Konaté) and two others are de facto offensive full-backs (Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who is also currently injured, with his third hamstring injury of the season). Then there’s Joe Gomez, who had three separate injuries this season that sidelined him for nearly two months with a variety of issues: Achilles, hamstring and hip.
To be fair, they list two other advocates on their website. One is Rhys Williams, who was on loan at Morecambe in the fourth tier last season, and hasn’t really played first-team football for Liverpool in four and a half years. The other is Calvin Ramsay, once a highly regarded right-back who has suffered a series of horrific injuries and, at 22, has made a total of five league starts in the last three and a half years, all while on loan.
You don’t need to have two or three players deep in each position like Arsenal. But conventional wisdom says that Do you need some type of insurance policy? in case your starters get injured, or their performance declines due to wear and tear. Liverpool played 80 Champions League and Premier League games in the last 18 months. Van Dijk started 78 of them and was never replaced. He turns 35 in July. Are these risks worth it?
All this makes Liverpool’s inaction bewildering. Yeah, they signed to one of the most promising young central defenders —Jérémy Jacquet, 20 years oldfrom Rennes— but it won’t arrive until next season. What’s up with this season?
There is a school of thought that says that having spent a fortune last summer, money was tight in January and, in any case, the owners, Fenway Sports Group, manage the finances prudently. Maybe. But if your extremely thin defending corps ends up costing you a place in next season’s Champions League, that’s probably €80m+ in potential revenue going down the drain. (As of today, Liverpool is sixth and would be out, by the way). And if it means you get knocked out of this year’s Champions League in the round of 16 instead of, say, the quarter-finals, that’s another €30m – poof! – gone. (Add them together and you could get two Jacquets.)
Besides, You don’t necessarily need to find the next Jamie Carragher in Januarywhich is difficult and expensive. You just need a live body that can cover minutes and get the job done to a minimum standard on the field.
The last time Liverpool had a defensive crisis, in 2020-21, they brought someone called Nat Phillips out of nowhere and he became a starter for half a season. They finished third in the league, and he started both Champions League quarterfinals against Real Madrid. Are we really to believe that they couldn’t find someone, even on loan? Did they even consider that? Whether it’s a promising young player to give a club like Liverpool a window and exposure, or a veteran whose wages you’d like to get off your books. Look at the financial state of clubs in Europe (and in the Premier League). Is there really no one out there?
The strange thing about all this is that they had time. October, November, December — that’s three months to make a plan and bring someone when the window opens. Liverpool won just one of six league games in all of January. Could a fresh body have moved the needle?
Liverpool’s inaction in January (apart from Jacquet) It was a result of one of two things.. O They tried—and failed.— bring in someone to add depth and act as an insurance policy, meaning the problem was execution. Or they simply concluded that their defensive options were strong enough — to be fair, they have the second-best xG against numbers in the Premier League, after Arsenal — and durable enough to not need insurance, in which case it was by design.
If it’s the latter, it’s hugely counterintuitive and defies any kind of conventional wisdom. But hey: trust the process, right?
