Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola has insisted he wants to keep Alexis Mac Allister and Alisson at the club, as the Reds face a defensive crisis and the threat of Real Madrid hijacking their transfer targets.
Speaking at a news conference in Chicago at the start of Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the United States, Iraola made clear his desire to retain the Argentina international midfielder and Brazilian goalkeeper. Mac Allister, 27, has two years left on the five-year contract he signed in 2023 and has yet to begin talks over a new deal, prompting speculation he could leave this summer. “I think Alexis has been one of the best players at the club for the last few years, and he has had a very good World Cup, so it is normal that other clubs want our best players,” Iraola said. “It always happens in other markets. But I want to keep my good players. I'm looking forward more to signing new players rather than losing the ones we have here.”
“Iraola wants to keep Mac Allister and Alisson but faces defensive crisis as Real target Schlotterbeck.”
Alisson, 33, has a year left on his contract and has been linked with Juventus, but Iraola values his experience in a changing room that has lost several senior figures. “Alisson is someone also in a changing room that has lost some references in terms of experience,” the Spaniard explained. “We need the references like Virgil [van Dijk], like Alisson, like Joe Gomez, players that have been here for a long time.”
But Iraola admitted the squad is “very thin” in defence, particularly at centre-back and right-back. Despite the £60million arrival of Jeremy Jacquet and the presence of Giovanni Leoni, who suffered an ACL injury after arriving last summer, the manager is seeking reinforcements. He singled out right-back as a problem area because Conor Bradley is “months” away from playing after a knee injury sustained in January. “At the end, if you have a fully fit, healthy Conor Bradley, we are very happy, ready to go and we would not be asking ourselves these questions,” Iraola said. “I think it's a situation that is tricky, because we trust Conor in the long term, we know we want him to be our right-back but right now he is still, I would say, a little bit far from returning. So, with the centre-back, with the right-back situation, in terms of defensive depth, we are, I think, very thin right now so I think it's a solution that we are trying to find, yes.”
However, Liverpool’s search for a centre-back has hit a familiar obstacle: Real Madrid. According to Sky Germany, Borussia Dortmund’s Nico Schlotterbeck – a Liverpool target last season who signed a new contract until 2031 – has a release clause between £42million and £51m. Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho is pushing to sign the 26-year-old left-footed centre-back, who is also on the club’s shortlist alongside Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori. It would not be the first time Real have thwarted Liverpool; in the past two summers, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate rejected new contracts to move to Madrid on free transfers, and Aurelien Tchouameni chose Real over Liverpool in 2022. With Mourinho’s interest threatening to scupper another deal, Iraola may have to look elsewhere to shore up his backline before the window closes.
