Murphy warns Liverpool's Frimpong and Kerkez 'are not going to get better' under Iraola

Danny Murphy has delivered a blunt verdict on Liverpool’s full-back situation, insisting that Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez are “not good enough” and that improvement is simply “not in them” — a damning assessment that compounds growing concern over the club’s recent transfer strategy.

Frimpong arrived from Bayer Leverkusen and Kerkez from Bournemouth during Liverpool’s record summer spending spree, with both tasked with replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson — two of the most productive full-backs the Premier League has seen. The transition has been rocky, particularly in the final third, where neither player has come close to matching their predecessors’ output.

“The bigger problem is that the full-backs aren’t good enough at Liverpool,” Murphy said. “They are not going to get better, it is not in them. They are 100mph. They are working hard but their level of crossing and choice of final pass is really poor. It looks worse for the Liverpool fans when you have been so used to seeing two of the best we’ve ever seen in Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, in terms of assists, quality and picking the final pass.”

Murphy acknowledged that both players offer something defensively — “okay, not brilliant” — but argued that their attacking limitations will continue to be exposed, regardless of who is coaching them. Kerkez is now reunited with Andoni Iraola, the manager credited with drawing the best out of him during his time at Bournemouth, yet Murphy sees little reason for optimism.

The criticism arrives against a backdrop of wider unease about Liverpool’s recent recruitment. Jamie Carragher went further, warning that the 12-month window that brought in Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, and the full-back pair could ultimately be judged the worst in Premier League history if results do not improve.

“My fear is this window of 12 months ago could set Liverpool back a year or two, to fix it,” Carragher said. “If this doesn’t change in the next two or three months under Iraola, and these players improving, I think we’re going to be looking at that as arguably the worst transfer window we’ve probably seen in Premier League history, when you consider the fees for these players, and what it’s going to do for Liverpool.”

Liverpool have continued to invest heavily, making Bradley Barcola their third signing above £100 million in the space of 12 months. Whether Iraola can unlock the potential in a squad assembled at enormous cost — and silence doubters like Murphy and Carragher — now stands as the defining challenge of his tenure at Anfield.