Liverpool's Challenge: Retaining Alexis Mac Allister and Rebuilding the Squad

Andoni Iraola knows exactly what he has in Alexis Mac Allister – and exactly what he stands to lose.

The Argentine midfielder, fresh from a gruelling season that stretched all the way to a World Cup final, has become a constant presence in transfer gossip columns, with Madrid regularly floated as a possible next step. On paper, Liverpool hold a strong hand: Mac Allister still has two years left on his deal. In reality, Iraola understands the market and the magnetism of Europe’s elite.

He is not pretending otherwise.

“I think Alexis has been one of the best players of the club last year and has done a very good World Cup,” Iraola said, laying out the problem in simple terms. When you have that level of player, others come calling. It is inevitable. The coach accepts that logic, but he has his own.

“I want to keep my good players,” he added, before making clear where his energy is really directed. “Probably I'm looking forward more to signing new players than the ones we have here.”

That is the balance Liverpool are trying to strike this summer: hold tight to what remains of their core while urgently rebuilding around it.

Holes in the spine

The scale of the task is obvious the moment you list the departures. Mohamed Salah. Andy Robertson. Ibrahima Konate. Three pillars of the modern Liverpool era, gone in one window, leaving gaps in leadership, structure, and sheer quality.

Iraola did not dress it up. He called the need for new signings “obvious” and he is right. The squad has been stripped of experience and edge, particularly in wide areas.

A winger sits at the top of the recruitment board.

“I think it is difficult to say a number,” Iraola admitted when asked how many players he wants. The market, as ever, will dictate the volume. But he did not hesitate over the priority. “Winger for example, we definitely need to sign a winger,” he said. Around that, everything else becomes a moving puzzle: cost, availability, and how the current group responds in pre-season.

There is no shopping-list fantasy here, no talk of overhauls for the sake of it. Just a manager trying to rebuild on the fly while the clock ticks on the window.

Injuries and uncertainty

Complicating matters is a fitness picture that refuses to settle. Several players remain sidelined, trusted options who cannot yet be counted on. That uncertainty is shaping Liverpool’s strategy as much as any scouting report.

“We have some tricky positions where we have injured players that we trust, but it is still not the ideal situation, so it will depend on a lot of things,” Iraola explained.

In other words: if the right player appears at the right price, they move. If not, they may have to gamble on the bodies already in the building returning in time and in shape.

It is a delicate line. One more setback in the wrong area, and a calculated risk can quickly look like negligence.

Work in progress in America

All of this plays out against the backdrop of a demanding pre-season tour in the United States, where Liverpool are trying to prepare for a Premier League campaign while their squad remains in flux.

The trip is not a branding exercise for Iraola. It is a laboratory. Sessions and friendlies against Sunderland, Leeds United, and Wrexham will help bed in new signings Jeremy Jacquet and Victor Munoz, while also exposing which academy prospects can realistically contribute this season and which need minutes elsewhere.

The coaching staff will be watching everything: touch, tempo, decision-making under pressure. For some youngsters, this tour will decide their immediate future. For Iraola, it will inform whether he pushes harder for late-window reinforcements.

And then there is Mac Allister.

He is due to rejoin the group after a much-needed break, his body and mind finally allowed to step off the treadmill that carried him from club duty to a World Cup final and back again. Liverpool want him back in the middle of the pitch, dictating play, setting the tone. Other clubs are watching, waiting, calculating.

For now, Iraola’s message is simple: keep the stars, replace the lost firepower, trust the process in the US. The question is whether Liverpool can do all three before the season starts – and before Madrid, or anyone else, decide that waiting for Alexis Mac Allister is no longer an option.