Liverpool’s summer transfer window: Is one signing enough to challenge for the title?

By Callum Castel-Nuovo

Tottenham Hotspur (£60m), Chelsea (£108m), Manchester City (£115m), Manchester United (£126m) and Arsenal (£149m) have spent a combined £558m during the summer transfer window with Liverpool only spending £36m. On a net basis, Liverpool spent £11m in total during the summer window, the second smallest amount of the 'Big Six' behind Chelsea who made a profit during the window with £110m in sales (transfermarkt.com).

However, Chelsea were able to bring in Romelu Lukaku with the money they received for Tammy Abraham, Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori, Davide Zappacosta, Víctor Moses and Olivier Giroud. Loan fees also built Chelsea’s net spend over the summer.

Manchester City purchased Jack Grealish whilst Manchester United also strengthened with Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho, and Raphael Varane. Each of the ‘Big Six’ spent plenty and improved areas of their squad, whilst Liverpool spent little, allowed five players to leave permanently and only signed one. Though Liverpool spent £74m last season on various positions, the reds have still spent less than each of the ‘Big Six’ over the past two seasons.

Since Fenway Sports Group (FSG) took over at Liverpool in 2010, the club have a net transfer spend of £575m compared to Arsenal’s £706m, Chelsea’s £794m, Manchester United’s £1.1bn and Manchester City’s £1.2bn net transfer spends. Despite this, Liverpool have been successful with recent Champions league triumph during the 2018/19 season and Premier League glory in the 2019/20 season.

With Liverpool being no strangers to success despite low-cost transfer windows, why are fans worried about this summer’s window?

After last season it was clear that Liverpool had many issues regarding the centre-back position. However, the club quickly paid attention to this and completed a deal with RB Leipzig for highly rated Ibrahima Konate for a £36m acquisition. Though a new centre-back was very welcome at Anfield, this has been Liverpool’s only signing of the transfer window. As well as this, three games have passed in the premier league and Konate has only made 3 appearances during pre-season friendlies.

Gini Wijnaldum’s lack of replacement is also a cause for concern. The Dutch midfielder played more minutes (2,941) than any other midfielder in Liverpool’s squad last season. Wijnaldum also appeared in every premier league game whilst Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita found themselves struggling with injury or covering in defence. This signifies that Wijnaldum has been key for Liverpool not just last season, but over the past 5 years as he played over 30 Premier League games every season since his arrival at Liverpool. Though Harvey Elliot appears to be Jurgen Klopp’s number one man for Wijnaldum’s replacement, fans must wait and see whether Elliot has the capabilities of making the step up to the Premier League just yet.

Liverpool also allowed Xherdan Shaqiri to head to Lyon during the window with the fans already having concerns of attacking depth. Last season Sadio Mane and Robertson Firmino were not up to their usual standards throughout the season, leaving Mohamed Salah as the main attacking source. Salah scored 22 Premier League goals and just missed out on the Golden Boot, whilst Mane and Firmino combined for 20 goals between the pair. The arrival of Diogo Jota was welcome across the frontline but with the Portuguese attacker side-lined through injury for much of the season, Liverpool were short on attacking reinforcements. With Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi being the main attacking depth behind Salah, Firmino, Mane and Jota, Liverpool fans will be biting their nails if any of the four attacking players go down injured during a game.

Finally, Liverpool still have a lack of depth in the right-back position. After gaining cover for left-back Andy Robertson with Konstantinos Tsmikas’s arrival, fans would have welcomed a similar addition for Trent Alexander-Arnold. If the England right-back finds himself ruled out this season, Liverpool only have Neco Williams or James Milner to turn to. With suggestions that Williams was set to leave for more game time and with James Milner turning 36 in January, Trent’s absence would not be welcome at Anfield. Though Milner has always been a work horse that covers many positions including right-back, it will start becoming an ask of him to maintain high energy levels with his age and an even greater ask to keep up with Trent’s job. However, Williams is young and fresh but will also struggle to keep up with Trent’s ability in that position.

Liverpool will look to be challenging for the title this season, but after finishing 3rd last season and the ‘Big Six’ strengthening in numbers, it will be up to Jurgen Klopp to achieve a lot with a limited backing once again.