The club have started preparations for the season at Melwood despite still not having a permanent manager in place and many holes on the roster to fill.
With little notification and no fanfare, the Liverpool FC Women returned to Melwood on Monday to begin preseason preparations. The Reds are looking to bounce back from a disappointing season that saw them struggle to finish off games against sides they dominated, dropping points all too often from a winning position.
While preseason is often a time for optimism, there is a big cloud of uncertainty that is leaving many supporters nervous about the direction of the club. First and foremost, Liverpool have started preseason without a permanent manager. Matt Beard was fired in March, leaving Amber Whiteley as the interim manager. The club has been moving forward with a search for the next person to lead the club, with former Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor recently rumored as a frontrunner for the position. No deal has been done ahead of preseason, however, and Amber Whiteley is still leading training sessions for the time being.
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Along with not having a manager in place, Liverpool have started preseason having lost their captain Niamh Fahey to retirement, vice captain Taylor Hinds leaving on a free transfer to Arsenal, and star player Olivia Smith to Arsenal for a world record fee.
The loss of Hinds means that the Reds now only Lucy Parry on the roster as a fullback. Parry dealt with an achilles issue that left her unable to play most of last season, so both defensive flanks are now a major worry.
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The loss of Smith means Liverpool will have to find a way to replicate her offensive output. Smith lead the team with seven goals last season, and was the focal point of most attacking play from the Reds. Mia Enderby is an exciting young talent in the squad who could potentially step in to provide some of the speed and aggressiveness on the ball that Smith provided, but Enderby has yet to put it together on a consistent basis to nail down regular minutes in the first team so far.
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In addition to the players who have already left, the status of a new contract for midfielder Fuka Nagano is still unresolved. Fuka has been a lynchpin in midfield during her time at Liverpool, exuding calm while displaying her fantastic ability to read the game. The squad is already thin in midfield despite having signed Kirsty Maclean and Sam Kerr this summer. Exciting young talent Zara Shaw is likely out for at least the first half of the season as she attempts to recover from her second ACL injury while Sofie Lundgaard will be attempting to return from her own ACL injury suffered early last season.
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Even without the unexpected departures this summer, Liverpool already had plenty of work to do this summer after dealing with a plethora of injuries last season that were exacerbated by a thing squad. The Reds have been quiet in the early stages of the transfer window so far, with the aforementioned Kerr and Maclean joined by goalkeeper Rafaela Borggraffe as the only players to join the squad so far. Liverpool currently only have 20 players on the senior team roster. Those numbers include the injured Zara Shaw and out-of-contract Fuka Nagano.
The world record fee received for Olivia Smith will hopefully help efforts to bolster the ranks with quality players, but many of the top players have already made moves this summer and it is likely difficult to recruit talent with no manager in place. While there is still time to get deals done ahead of the close of the transfer window on September 4, it will be hard to implement a style of play with no manager and likely a raft of new faces needed to be integrated into the squad late in the summer.