In Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson, Liverpool have two of the best full-backs in world football. Boasting assists galore, the pair are vital to the Reds’ style both offensively and defensively.
As a result, considering they are aged 23 and 28 respectively, have both been first-choice since 2018 and are under contract until 2025 and 2026, Jurgen Klopp has rarely had to dip his toes into the transfer market in terms of acquiring new full-backs. However, it has also left the Reds biding their time when it comes to signing the right back-up option to either player.
The German has only signed nine defenders during his time in the Anfield hotseat, with Liverpool parting with £147.75m to bring in such players since his arrival in October 2015. Over half of that total was spent on Virgil van Dijk.
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Meanwhile, only £25.75m of that total has been spent on full-backs, with Scotland Under-21s international Calvin Ramsay becoming only Klopp’s third full-back signing in seven years when joining from Aberdeen for an initial £4m earlier this summer. Robertson was the first when snapped up from Hull City in a £10m deal back in 2017, while Kostas Tsimikas was signed for £11.75m in 2020.
Liverpool have a very specific way they want their full-backs to play, which has resulted in their patient approach to enhancing their natural options as a result, with Klopp preferring to utilise the likes of Joe Gomez and James Milner as makeshift alternatives until the right signing could be found as a result.
The latter spent the 2016/17 season as the Reds’ first-choice left-back after Alberto Moreno fell out of favour despite calls for a new signing after the Spaniard’s difficult showing in the 2016 Europa League final. In turn, Liverpool waited 12 months before they were able to bring in Robertson.
Meanwhile, Milner would continue as the Scot’s understudy before Tsimikas was snapped up two years ago. And now club bosses have identified Ramsay as an exciting prospect who can develop and play exactly how Klopp wants his full-backs to play, filling the one void left in the Reds squad for a natural like-for-like replacement.
Such an approach is in stark contrast to some of Liverpool’s title-rivals who continue to chop and change defensively with mixed results. Manchester United, for example, have spent £423m on 17 different defenders since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, with Erik ten Hag currently having 13 senior defenders to choose between. Excluding summer signings Tyrell Malacia and Lisandro Martinez, only eight of the previous 15 arrivals remain at Old Trafford, with none regarded as unmitigated successes and a feeling of inconsistent indifference or juries still out the best any can hope for.
Elsewhere, Man City are currently conducting their what feels like annual search for a new full-back. However, they look set to miss out on Brighton & Hove Albion left-back Marc Cucurella after baulking at the Seagulls’ £50m asking price.
City had been favourites to sign the one-time Spain international with such interest prompting Chelsea to not follow up on their own initial interest. However, after negotiations with Pep Guardiola ’s men were ended after the failure to agree a fee, despite the 24-year-old submitting a transfer request last week, he now seems set for Stamford Bridge with the reigning champions looking at alternative targets instead.
It is perhaps a surprise to see City not willing to meet Brighton’s asking-price considering it has been roughly the going-rate in recent years at the Etihad. Since Guardiola’s appointment in the summer of 2016, they have spent £408.5m on 10 defenders with six of them costing at least £50m. Meanwhile, £195.5m of that has been spent on six full-backs, including the £50m signing of Kyle Walker, £52m arrival of Benjamin Mendy and a deal worth an overall £60m for Joao Cancelo - City’s three current contracted full-backs.
Having seemingly missed out on Cucurella, it remains to be seen who City will move for instead and just how much they are willing to spend. Guardiola even suggested they might persist with their current defensive options, and use the likes of Nathan Ake as a back-up left-back, rather than strengthen further when quizzed about his interest in the Brighton defender last week.
"He's a Brighton player. I cannot say anything else," Guardiola said. "If it's possible (to strengthen we will) but if not, we stay with the players we have. Joao (Cancelo) can play there, Josh (Wilson-Esbrand) can play there, Nathan (Ake) can play there. I never complain about the squad I have since the first season. It is always for the benefit of the club, not for me, and I support the club."
Such a stance suggests he is willing to take a leaf out of Liverpool’s book and copy Klopp’s own patience for the right player. But regardless, Walker and Cancelo remain the only senior full-backs available to Guardiola, having already sold his own full-back signings in Danilo, Angelino and Oleksandr Zinchenko in recent years, and with Mendy remaining suspended and out of contract next summer.
A look around the rest of the ‘big six’ clubs and you’ll see the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea parting with £50m and £45m to sign Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ben Chilwell respectively, with a more meagre £25m fee perhaps the more traditional individual full-back rate with regards to recruitment at Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
Yet Klopp found both his two first-choice full-backs and their two natural back-ups for that fee alone. Granted, it helps when you have the talent of Alexander-Arnold emerging from your academy, but Robertson’s success at Anfield has made a mockery of his £10m transfer fee.
Tsimikas has delivered in reserve since his own move to Merseyside, scoring the winning penalty in last year’s FA Cup final, while Kopites are yet to see Ramsay in action though Reds bosses have high hopes. If the young Scott can follow in the footsteps of his three senior team-mates, Liverpool’s recruitment team will have delivered once again.
Where both full-back roles had been problem positions at Anfield at one point or another during the Premier League era, the Reds’ options have never looked stronger. And as Liverpool’s rivals’ conveyor belt purchasing and annual hunt for big-money replacements continues, Klopp will never have felt more satisfied with the quality options he continues to have at his disposal. Once again his patience has paid off.
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