By OkayGoal
Liverpool have a problem at right-back, and it isn’t Ronald Araújo. If anything, the centre-back has been one of the best things about their season so far, which is exactly why this conversation is so easy to ignore.
When Liverpool were shipping goals early on, two against Newcastle and two against Forest, Araújo stepped across from centre-back and the defence changed almost overnight. A clean sheet followed in the very next game, then three in a short spell. He is steadying the ship, and he deserves credit for it.
But steadying the ship and sailing it somewhere are two different things. Seven league games in, Liverpool have already used seven different right-backs, and the man currently holding the shirt is a centre-back on loan who would probably rather be playing in the middle.
Why Ronald Araújo is only a short-term fix at Liverpool right-back
There’s plenty to like about what Araújo brings. The physicality, the defensive nous, the versatility. Liverpool look a bigger side with him in the team, and from set pieces he towers over Jeremie Frimpong. He has already scored from a corner this season, and he ran into the crowd to celebrate a goal the other day.
He even produced a lovely bit of play inside the box against Atlético Madrid that surprised just about everyone. The issue is what happens going forward the rest of the time. Araújo isn’t putting consistent crosses into the box, and frankly he shouldn’t be expected to. He’s a centre-back. He arrived to offer solidity in the middle and cover on the right, not to whip balls in from the byline.
Two things can be true at once. He’s doing a fine job right now, and he’s still not the man to lock down the right-back slot for the next three or four years if his loan from Barcelona is ever made permanent.
Frimpong and Kerkez never found the balance
This was never the plan. When Trent Alexander-Arnold left, Frimpong was signed to play at right-back with Milos Kerkez on the left, a rejuvenated full-back pairing on paper. In practice, both want to go forward and neither can really defend, so there was no balance at all. Frimpong has been Liverpool’s weakest link this season, and Araújo only came in because he simply wasn’t good enough.
Kerkez hasn’t helped either. He’s having a poor season, to the point where Kostas Tsimikas has come in, and every time one of them plays, supporters find themselves wishing it was the other. Neither has locked down the position. Araújo needs a left-back doing him a favour by providing balance on the other side, and right now he isn’t getting one.
Seven right-backs and counting for Liverpool
Seven right-backs in seven league games is a remarkable number for a position everyone was crying out to strengthen in the summer. Victor Muñoz, a right winger, played there against Brentford. There is no situation in which that should be happening.
Look around the rest of the squad and the picture doesn’t improve. Conor Bradley is the most natural right-back Liverpool have, but he isn’t fit. Joe Gomez wasn’t even called upon when Araújo came off at half-time against Villarreal, which says he’s either not fit enough or not trusted enough, and neither is a good look. Giovanni Leoni, another centre-back, could easily end up there at some point too.
Gravenberch’s impossible half-time switch to right-back
Instead of Gomez, it was Ryan Gravenberch who moved. He started that game in an attacking midfield role, already slightly outside his usual area, and finished it at right-back on the other side of the pitch, a position he has played only three times in his career.
Think about the mental switch that requires. Everything a player has psyched himself up for in the warm-up and at half-time suddenly goes out of the window, and every attribute he needs changes in an instant. That isn’t a good thing, and dragging players across the pitch like that is no way to expect them to deliver.
Why Liverpool’s right-back problem is starving Alexander Isak
This is where the lack of attacking threat from full-back really bites. Get Alexander Isak the ball in the box and he will score, yet it isn’t reaching him nearly enough. Look at where Liverpool’s chances are coming from and it’s always the wide players or midfield. Alexis Mac Allister provided the delivery against Atlético, and Cody Gakpo has twice set up Isak by beating his man on the right and putting the ball across the face of goal.
The full-backs, on both sides, simply aren’t involved. The wingers have their own priorities too. Gakpo ultimately wants to score himself, Bradley Barcola wants the ball in behind, and Rio Ngumoha wants to run at defenders and get his own shot away. That leaves Florian Wirtz as close to the only genuinely creative player in the side, which goes some way to explaining why so much of the conversation keeps landing on him.
What Arsenal got right at right-back that Liverpool haven’t
Liverpool are effectively copying a model Arsenal went with a few years ago. Arteta decided he wanted defenders across the back line, so Riccardo Calafiori played at left-back, Jurriën Timber at right-back, Cristhian Mosquera filled in at right-back in the Champions League final and Piero Hincapié, a centre-back, has played plenty of games at left-back. Liverpool have matched that mould with Araújo.
The catch is that Arsenal are constantly criticised for their attack, not their defence, and the two are connected. Become more solid at the back and you inevitably give something up going forward. It’s also worth remembering that Liverpool conceded three in each of their last two Champions League games, so the solidity isn’t quite as watertight as it first looks.
Arsenal do have one thing Liverpool don’t: a settled relationship down the right. Bukayo Saka has been a mainstay when fit, and Ben White has built a real understanding with him going back to 2021/22. Araújo can’t do that, because the player in front of him changes every week. Liverpool have four wingers rotating and none of them has nailed down a starting place. That’s healthy competition, but with seven right-backs it also means a ridiculous number of combinations down one flank. Meanwhile, Kerkez and Barcola are far more likely to build an understanding on the left simply because they’ll play together more often. The hunt for a right-sided winger to fill the Salah void matters just as much as the full-back question.
Author Opinion
The worst options aren’t good enough, the middle options aren’t fit enough, and the best option is a centre-back. That’s Liverpool’s right-back situation in a sentence.
For now, Araújo is exactly what Liverpool need. They need solidity, and they need someone playing every week. But he is playing every week precisely because there’s nobody else, and his injury record at Barcelona wasn’t great, so that load could catch up with him. Later in the season, when Liverpool go a few games without scoring, the questions will start. Wirtz isn’t firing, the full-backs aren’t getting the ball into the box, and if the wingers aren’t scoring on their own, nothing else is. Six months from now, the right-back conversation will be impossible to avoid.