Why Liverpool’s Preseason Injury Boost Only Solves Half the Problem

Arne Slot has plenty of work to do to turn things around at Liverpool in 2026–27.

Arne Slot was short of options in a key position last year. | James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images

Liverpool could start preseason with Jérémy Jacquet and Geovanni Leoni as the only senior center backs available to Arne Slot—a boost in one sense because both players are in the final stages of recovering from long-term injury, but it also serves to highlight an alarming lack of depth in a crucial position.

Jacquet suffered a serious shoulder injury within a week of agreeing a pre-arranged transfer to Liverpool in February worth up to $80.4 million (£60 million) and hasn’t played since. The Athletic report that the 20-year-old Frenchman is expected to be ready for the planned start of Liverpool’s preseason program in early July, and that rehab since his surgery has gone well.

Leoni should also be there for day one of preseason. The 19-year-old Italian, something of a surprise signing last summer as Liverpool spent over $600 million on new players, picked up an ACL injury on his debut last September. Thankfully for him and the club, early estimates of a year out have shrunk.

But Slot may not have anything more to work with when preseason begins. Liverpool will first train at home, then play Sunderland in Nashville on July 25, Wrexham in New York four days later, followed by Leeds United in Chicago on Aug. 2. The new Premier League season starts Aug. 22.

Virgil van Dijk will be away at the World Cup with Netherlands into early July at least and won’t report back to Liverpool until the end of the month at the earliest. Ibrahima Konaté will also be at the tournament, if the Frenchman even returns to Liverpool at all, having reached the end of the season without an agreement over a new contract and no sign of one on the horizon.

There is also uncertainty about Joe Gomez, Liverpool’s longest serving player who could pursue a summer transfer in order to play more regularly at this stage of his career—he turns 30 next May. “I don’t know is the honest answer. I’ve only got a year left, so I don’t know,” he said recently.

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Liverpool’s Defensive Overhaul Accelerated

Big changes could be coming. | Image Photo Agency/Getty Images

Liverpool navigated almost all of 2025–26 with Gomez as the only cover to Van Dijk and Konaté.

If Gomez and Konaté remain, the addition of Jacquet and the return of Leoni could see the Reds with five center-back options in place for 2026–27. But it could easily be the case that Jacquet and Leoni are only joined by Van Dijk and no other returning players, in which case it is vital that the Reds turn to the transfer market for at least one, but perhaps two, new faces.

That the coming campaign will also almost certainly be Van Dijk’s last with the club makes it all the more important.

It feels too soon for Liverpool to put everything into a starting center-back partnership with a combined age of 39 and only 54 career top flight league appearances between them.

Defense cost Liverpool in 2025–26. The Reds conceded 53 goals, the club’s most ever in a 38-game Premier League season, which severely dented the work of an attack that was actually the fourth best across the whole division. Only seven teams were scored on more regularly than Slot’s.

Andy Robertson will be formally released next month and goalkeeper succession could also be coming. Rumors about Alisson leaving Anfield, potentially to join Juventus in Serie A, have increased in recent weeks and Liverpool must decide whether to put faith in Giorgi Mamardashvili or look elsewhere. Mamardashvili was always the planned replacement, but the Georgia international endured a challenging first year that didn’t fill fans with confidence about his future role.

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