With the World Cup well and truly underway, any transfer rumours have been relatively hard to come by, with many clubs choosing to wait until after the competition – giving them just three weeks to complete any new additions before the season starts again. Despite the distinct lack of intent though, it is clear that most big clubs need at least one marquee signing in midfield to give them the best chance next season, and it’s likely to cause a merry-go-round.
To begin, I think it’s imperative that Liverpool strengthen in midfield after a fairly disastrous 25/26 campaign. With the likely added weight of the departure of long-serving Curtis Jones, it leaves the club in a risky yet exciting position to strengthen in midfield and hopefully restore order under Iraola and challenge for the title once again. With that being said, I think Alexis Macallistar needs backup. We’ve seen throughout this season that he cannot maintain his level when playing twice a week. He looks tired, lethargic and quite frankly not up to the level he is capable of. Despite this though, contrary to many, Macallister shouldn’t be written off. In the 24/25 season, the Argentinian showed why he deserves his reputation and was arguably The Reds best midfielder. What he does need though, is depth. A young prospect to come in and help him manage minutes would be perfect, and that’s why I’ve highlighted World Cup star Caleb Yirenki.
He plays his football over in Denmark for FC Nordsjaelland, a club infamous for producing West Africa’s best players, and a club I’m very familiar with. Players such as Kamaldeen Sulemana, Simon Adingra and Mohamed Kudus have all shone here after being given an opportunity through the RTD academy and they specialise in consistently producing the very best. Furthermore, the Danish club have Ghanaian legend, Michael Essien, as Head Coach, almost acting as a mentor for young Yirenki. In an interview with FIFA, Essien noted that “he’s such a hard-working guy. He’s very calm, very respectful, very quiet. He does his talking on the pitch, and it’s good to see him doing very well for the team”. This followed the 20-year-old’s breakout year in the Superligaen, which saw him score two goals and six assists, but most importantly dominated in that number eight position that FC Nordsjaelland have struggled with for a few years. In just 34 games, he managed to win 170 duels, 39 fouls, and complete 1,730 passes with a success rate of 91.8% – putting him in the 97th percentile in Europe!
The Ghanaian has not only impressed on the biggest stage, but he’s excelled as Ghana’s best player. Whether it’s his innate ability to read the game, his unmatched work rate, or even the addition of his goals, he’s certainly one of the best upcoming midfielders coming through at the moment. His performance against Panama put him on everyone’s radar, at just 20 years old, he dominated the midfield battle in what was a tough game for Ghana and popped up in the last minute to win the game. Against England he was tenacious, closing down every possibility and ultimately stopped the overwhelming quality of attack that England possessed. For me, his unique playing style draws comparisons to N’Golo Kanté. His excellent reading of the game makes it so easy for him to rack up tackles and stop attacks as well as pop up with important goals. Last season, he won 169 ground duels and made 32 interceptions – highlighting this incredible aspect to his game. Like Kante, he has a low centre of gravity, making it almost impossible to tackle him. This allows him to make 1.62 successful dribbles and win 1.12 fouls per 90.
Liverpool’s forgettable campaign was caused by Slot’s slow, possession based system that lacked any intensity. This led to the embarrassing statistic that showed the Reds to have been outrun in 32 out of their first 36 outings. Almost more shockingly, Liverpool spent 37.29% of games walking – the second lowest in the league. With the sacking of Slot, Iraola is no doubt going to implement a similar one to that of Bournemouth – tenacious, attacking and exciting – a system that most certainly suits a player like Yirenki.
