Liverpool have moved quickly, and with good reason. A defensive crisis has a habit of wrecking plans before a season has properly begun, so the push to bring in Ronald Araujo on a season-long loan feels like a piece of sensible business rather than a gamble.
Andoni Iraola has a problem at the back. Joe Gomez is out after limping off in pre-season and is expected to miss around a month, which leaves him absent for the start of the campaign. Giovanni Leoni is still recovering from an ACL injury, Conor Bradley may yet be sidelined for a while, and the departure of Ibrahima Konate to Real Madrid has left a sizeable hole in the squad.
That is where Araujo comes in. The Barcelona defender has been lined up as the answer, a player capable of operating at centre-back and right-back, which matters when injuries are piling up and flexibility becomes priceless.
Araujo is 27 now, an age where a defender should understand the game and still have enough power to dominate it. Last season he made 24 La Liga appearances as Barcelona won the ***** le, and over the course of his time at the club he has built up 213 first-team appearances and scored 14 goals since arriving from Boston River in January 2019.
Photo: IMAGO

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