RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Liverpool still have a lot of decisions to make about their team this summer.
After their short-comings last season, it was clear that change needed to be made.
Arne Slot's sacking was their first step towards that and, even though Victor Munoz and Ronald Araujo have both been brought in , some new players still need to be added to their ranks to make things better.
At the very least, Liverpool's goal for the 2026-27 campaign will be to place higher than fifth and get further into the Champions League.
But, in reality, they should be aiming to add at least one more trophy to their cabinet.
However, thanks to the homegrown rules in the Premier League, they've now hit their maximum number of foreign players allowed (17) and will have to start sacrificing some members of their first-team squad for new signings.
Many different solutions to this issue have been discussed but, right now, a smart way to get past them may have just emerged.
One of the main problems that Liverpool are facing at the moment is injuries.
The Anfield outfit have almost always failed to keep the vast majority of their players fit which has led to them having to rely on youngsters from their academy to plug the gaps.
And, while this may have worked for Jurgen Klopp , it's unclear whether the same will happen again with Andoni Iraola, especially after Slot basically refused to play any of them.
However, since Bradley Barcola is their main target and would need registering , one of the Spaniard's current crop of players would need to be sacrificed.
Of course, there are many potential players for Liverpool to choose from but, if they don't want to get rid of anyone, not registering Hugo Ekitike until he's back from his injury in January could be a rather smart move.
The Frenchman is obviously not going to play an important role for the Reds until after the new year so, if he's around for a couple of weeks or even a month, it doesn't feel worthwhile for Liverpool to use one of their registration places on him.
So, with that in mind, Liverpool not registering the Frenchman and using his place on Barcola until January could end up being rather clever.
Liverpool do have multiple options to choose from if Hugo Ekitike is going to be back soon
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Although using Ekitike's registration place for the ' unstoppable ' Barcola would be a smart move, once the Frenchman is back from his injury, Liverpool would just be faced with the same issue again.
However, by January, Iraola will have had more time to evaluate his team and figure out who he actually wants to keep around and who he wants to get rid of.
Of course, this is what the Reds' pre-season games are for but, it's completely different seeing players feature in friendly games compared to the Premier League or Champions League.
Indeed, other players such as Calvin Ramsay and Wataru Endo could both end up being sacrificed but, since each of them play in different positions to Barcola, swapping a like-for-like player makes a lot more sense.
And, with the number of injuries that the Reds suffered last term, having Ramsay and Endo around could prove to be rather useful, especially if .
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