Dominik Szoboszlai finished Liverpool’s first game of the season as their last action hero, the nerveless scorer of a 99th-minute penalty. He ended the second as a right-back. Which, he may feel, was his 2025-26 season in microcosm; part goal threat, part emergency full-back.
A new era has begun with elements of the old. Perhaps Arne Slot forgot to pass Andoni Iraola the note that Szoboszlai had made it clear a few months ago that he sees himself as a midfielder. Or maybe it only took the Basque around two-and-a-half hours of competitive football to come to the same conclusion as the Dutchman: that there are reasons to put Szoboszlai at right-back.
Some of them go by the name of Jeremie Frimpong. Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest on Saturday was notable in part for three times when a goal was awarded and when Frimpong had played a part. One was chalked off; when it seemed Frimpong had set up his former Bayer Leverkusen teammate Florian Wirtz for an equaliser, VAR ruled him offside.
It was doubly revealing: a supposed defender with a fondness for raiding in attack was Liverpool’s furthest man forward. But then Frimpong has a tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Forest’s opener, scored by his immediate opponent Dan Ndoye, came when he was on the right wing. Cody Gakpo, who could move to Man City before Tuesday’s deadline, had slotted in behind his compatriot, perhaps could have been blamed. But there were echoes of Newcastle’s second goal last Sunday, when Joe Willock scored from the same channel, where Frimpong ought to be found.
Forest’s second, meanwhile, stemmed from Frimpong losing Neco Williams as Liverpool switched off from a quick throw. The Welshman won a penalty; after the game Steven Gerrard remarked to the former Liverpool defender that his old club require a full-back.
It could be seen as another indirect indictment of Frimpong. There have been a few: Slot tended to prefer two midfielders, in Szoboszlai and the now departed Curtis Jones, at right-back to a Bundesliga winner. Right now, Williams, once Trent Alexander-Arnold’s understudy, would command a place in this Liverpool team. So would many another. With three days to go in the transfer window, Liverpool were readying themselves to spend at least £106m and up to £120m on Bradley Barcola. But prioritising wingers has left them looking decidedly frail in the full-back positions.
Liverpool can argue Frimpong was not signed as a right-back, but as a versatile right-sided player. He flourished for Bayer Leverkusen more as a wing-back. Yet the fact remains that he arrived as Trent Alexander-Arnold left. The sense is that Iraola, with his pursuit of wide attackers in the transfer market, does not see Frimpong as a winger.
Which makes him a right-back and, with Conor Bradley out until November, the only available one. And yet it felt ever more audible that Anfield regards him as a weak link of one; perhaps opponents do, too. The new right-sided centre-back Jeremy Jacquet can look overburdened when flanked either by Frimpong or the gap where he was supposed to be.
There was a feeling Iraola’s high-paced blueprint would suit Frimpong more than Slot’s football. Yet his wanderlust can leave him out of position and with his greatest asset, his pace, negated by the reality of wherever he has roamed.
For one with an attacking bent, he has a lack of end product. For years, Liverpool were spoilt by Alexander-Arnold’s delivery from the right flank. Frimpong’s is rather poorer, with a lone cross completed this season. He has one assist in his Liverpool career, compared to 19 in three seasons in the Bundesliga. Alexander-Arnold left Anfield with 86 to his name.
But the biggest issues are defensive. There is a case for Iraola to use a player who is more of a central defender at right-back, whether Joe Gomez, when he is fit again, or Ronald Araujo. It feels safe to say Szoboszlai will not want a return to the back four.
Liverpool may lament Bradley’s lucklessness. The Northern Irishman’s performances suggested he is of the level required to be Alexander-Arnold’s successor. But injury problems have been a constant. He has only started more than 14 league games once in a season, in League One with Bolton in 2022-23.
All of which may have rendered it more important that Liverpool recruited a right-back this summer. They have not, with Frimpong’s start to the season compounding many a fear. And if it was understandable that a successor to Mohamed Salah topped their wish list, the men used as right wingers have provided key contributions, courtesy of Victor Munoz and Gakpo.
For much of the last decade, Liverpool’s right flank was staffed by Alexander-Arnold and Salah and, for quite a bit of that, it could be called the world’s best. But even as they spend heavily to replace Salah, Frimpong’s ongoing struggles show they have botched the succession to Alexander-Arnold.
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