Does Jeremie Frimpong Fit In As A Liverpool Right-Back?

Liverpool FC is set to make Jeremie Frimpong its first signing of the summer as it heads into the 2025/26 campaign looking to defend a Premier League title.

Frimpong would not just be the first signing of the new season, he would also be considered the first major signing of the Arne Slot era.

The Dutch manager arrived at the club ahead of the 2024/25 campaign with the unenviable task of replacing legendary manager Jürgen Klopp, but despite predictions of a slightly turbulent settling-in, transitional season, Slot went on to win the league in his first year in English soccer.

He did so without the need for new signings, winning the title with the squad Klopp had left behind.

Federico Chiesa did join the club from Juventus in the summer of 2024, but hasn’t started a league game all season, playing for a total of just 41 minutes in five appearances off the bench.

Winning the league with no new players was a notable triumph itself given the regular frenzy around the transfer market would suggest every team needs several new players in each transfer window.

Though Slot proved that wrong, showing that good coaching and slight tactical tweaks can lead to success, Liverpool will need new players ahead of next season.

Frimpong looks set to be the first of several new arrivals, and his signing will begin to answer some questions as to what a Slot team will look like as it evolves from the Klopp era.

While the departing Trent Alexander-Arnold was a one-off, midfield/full-back hybrid, Frimpong is very much in the mold of a wing-back. He’s quick, direct in the press, and dynamic on the ball.

His profile suggests he would be expected to line up as a right-wing-back in a team that uses a back five with three centre-backs, or as a right winger in a 4-4-2.

Liverpool, so far under Slot, plays with a back four, so immediately a question is raised as to how such an attacking right-back would affect the team’s balance.

The positives, therefore, are naturally seen in attacking areas.

Attack Wins Games

Right-winger, or more accurately inside-right forward, Mohamed Salah, has become slightly less of a runner and dribbler as he’s aged, and is now more of a tricky creator, becoming known as much for his assists and creativity as for his goals and inside-forward play. It’s the most complete version of Salah we’ve seen.

Frimpong, whether overlapping down the right or making runs inside as Liverpool’s other right-back, Conor Bradley, sometimes does, would give Salah another target for his passing while also replacing the speed and drive Salah himself once brought.

Frimpong, with Bradley as an alternative, has the potential to complement the 33-year-old Salah perfectly.

This setup will need plenty of insurance, though, as the Alexander-Arnold and Salah right-sided pairing once did.

This will come from defensive midfield areas, which might also need reinforcing ahead of the new season, as well as from the valuable all-round defensive play and speed of Ibrahima Konaté in the right center-back position for Liverpool.

Frimpong’s recovery pace is also much better than Alexander-Arnold’s, so there might be a little more respite for the defensive midfielders with their new right-back in place.

Above all, it will be the responsibility of Slot, his assistants, and their system to accentuate the strengths of his players and cover for any gaps and weaknesses that might be left as a result.

Lessons From Andy Robertson

When Liverpool signed left-back Andy Robertson from Hull City in 2017, the club’s recruitment team highlighted to Klopp that though the Scotland international showed up well in attack, his defensive ability at that time was a worry.

Klopp’s response was to back the signing as he primarily wanted his left-back to attack, and other players in the team would cover the gaps in defense.

Robertson went on to become one of the best left-backs in Liverpool FC history, and his defensive contributions turned out to be more than good enough for what the team needed.

Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes could have the same line of thinking now, and Frimpong is the most attacking of all the attacking full-backs out there. Liverpool has also been linked with Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkes, who isn’t dissimilar to the younger Robertson.

Slot and the current Liverpool recruitment team, with Michael Edwards overseeing from his position as Fenway Sports Group’s CEO of football, will believe the addition of Frimpong will be a net positive.

After all, the team is already used to covering for an attacking player in the full-back position.

Though they lose a lot in the area of progressive and creative passing with the departure of Alexander-Arnold, they will gain a different kind of forward progression from the directness, speed, and general forward thinking of Frimpong.

Locker Room Value

Frimpong would also be a valuable, popular addition to the Liverpool locker room.

He already knows several players in the team, most notably his Dutch international teammates Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, and Virgil van Dijk.

He and Gravenberch especially appear to get on well. Ahead of one Netherlands international camp, a video of Frimpong greeting Gravenberch with a Scouse “alright La?” circulated on social media.

It’s good that the pair are close, as they will have to work in tandem for Liverpool, especially in defense. Gravenberch, as he did for Alexander-Arnold, will likely be the one tasked with covering for Frimpong when the right wing-back makes his forays forward.

Though not in the midfield/full-back mold of Alexander-Arnold, Frimpong is especially good at getting in position to receive passes and his pace on the counter-attack makes him a target for creative players.

What he lacks in aerial ability at defensive set peices, he would make up for as a player to lurk on the edge of such situations in preparation for a quick break, turning defense into attack in an instant thanks to his acceleration.

Alexander-Arnold was unique, but Frimpong is, too, in a different way. He is not what many teams would be looking for in a full-back to play in a back four, but Liverpool sees an opportunity to add something to their team that other clubs will not have and could give them the edge in games.

As was the case with Alexander-Arnold, much will depend on how the team functions as a unit in defence and during the transition from attack to defence.

Another positive for Liverpool is that Frimpong would also count as a homegrown player for the purpose of Premier League and Champions League squad registration, having come through the ranks at Manchester City’s youth teams.

Like his compatriot Van Dijk, he played a few seasons for Celtic in his formative years.

That experience in Scotland, where he was part of Celtic’s 2020 domestic treble-winning team, and recently in Germany, where he won the Bundesliga and DFB Pokal with Bayer Leverkusen in 2024, should serve him well for adapting to English football at a team that is currently the Premier League champion.

Liverpool’s own adaptation to Frimpong might not need to be as dramatic a change as first thought.