Liverpool right-back problem could be solved by five bit-part Premier League stars | OneFootball

“I just said we don’t have a squad where we have four right-backs and 12 midfielders and three or four No.9s – that’s not how it works over here,” said increasingly testy Liverpool manager Arne Slot when he was asked – entirely reasonably – if the Reds’ powers that be might consider sourcing a new right-back as they currently have no fit options after Jeremie Frimpong’s injury.

“We have to do the smart things for the near future but also for the longer future,” he added. That, along with Fabrizio Romano’s claim that Liverpool have already scoured the market after Conor Bradley’s injury and decided “there were no good right-backs to sign”, opens up the possibility of the loan signing of a not-so-good right-back in what remains of the January transfer window to tide them over.

Alternatively they could look to sign young players with significant potential from clubs where their talent isn’t being put to good use.

Here are five bit-part Premier League right-backs Liverpool should consider.

Ben White (Arsenal)

As if to ease what must have been a pretty extreme case of itchy feet, albeit for someone who doesn’t particularly care for the game he plays, Mikel Arteta has bestowed upon White some actual football in recent weeks amid interest from both clubs on Merseyside.

Nothing was doing for Everton as Arsenal turned an initial approach down, citing the need for squad depth to battle on all fronts, but while the Gunners are likely to give Liverpool even shorter shrift should they open negotiations, White may well look at the Liverpool options at right-back even when everyone’s fit and fancy his chances of being in the best XI of a side competing in the Champions League and ask that the door for his exit be opened.

Lutsharel Geertruida (Sunderland)

Dubbed a Slot ‘favourite’ – as players of a manager’s former club always are – in widespread reports that he could be the Dutchman’s ‘first signing’ as Liverpool manager in the summer of 2024, and rumours of interest in Geertruida resurfaced again a year later before the Reds instead plumped for Frimpong, clearing the path for Sunderland to extract him from Feyenoord.

He’s started ten of 23 Premier League games this term and hasn’t made it off the bench in the last two, with Regis Le Bris’ preference for Nordi Mukiele at right-back meaning the game time afforded to Geertruida has been either at centre-back or in midfield – where Liverpool could also very much do with upgrades and reinforcements.

Rico Lewis (Manchester City)

One of innumerable players down the years that Pep Guardiola has been “in love with” and insists “deserve to play more” but who barely register as being part of the Manchester City squad.

We would suggest a big, big problem for Lewis is Guardiola’s recent revelation that “[he’s a] midfield player. He’s not a player to play right-back up and down”. To which a reasonable request from Lewis might be for his manager to stop playing him at p*ssing right-back then.

In our experience, a player who looks like a right-back, plays as a right-back and has pretty much always played as a right-back, is a right-back.

Josh Acheampong (Chelsea)

It would feel very much like the interest Liverpool held in Levi Colwill a couple of years ago, when Chelsea said no, but in what we suspect was a cheeky, come-and-get-him sort of way where they definitely would have broken had the Reds seriously pushed for his signing as the Blues could then secure some of that sweet, sweet pure profit.

Acheampong may well feel he’s at the right club given the BlueCo obsession with young talent, though they have proven themselves to be considerably more keen on signing that young talent than granting academy players first-team opportunities thanks to the absurd way in which PSR makes that route the more financially beneficial one.

The 19-year-old is mature beyond his years and his ceiling is yet to come into view. It’s hard to tell exactly what Liverpool might have to pay, but we suspect any fee will be looked back on as a bargain in a couple of years’ time.

Kieran Trippier (Newcastle)

The ultimate ‘will do a job’, ‘safe pair of hands’ signing who, at the age of 35, may only have six months of Premier League football left in him before returning to Burnley to reignite his battle for right-back supremacy with Kyle Walker.