Ronald Araujo has given Liverpool an unexpected answer to a problem that had been building since the summer. The Uruguayan defender, signed from Barcelona without a transfer fee and with a £47m option to buy at the end of the season, has made his first two starts for the club at right-back rather than in central defence,
The move was forced by circumstance. Conor Bradley has been dealing with injury concerns, Joe Gomez picked up a knock in pre-season, and manager Andoni Iraola has had to rework the back line without either of his natural options fully fit. Araujo's introduction against a promoted club and then against Atletico Madrid has, for now, taken the pressure off.
Araujo's first Liverpool start came against Ipswich, the promoted side, and his second arrived in a much sterner test against Atletico Madrid. In that game he set up Dominik Szoboszlai's equaliser, a moment that drew praise from inside the dressing room. "You have to ask him if he meant it. It's the beauty of football, isn't it?" Szoboszlai said afterwards.
Virgil van Dijk, the Liverpool captain, was even more direct about what he saw from Araujo before that goal. "He did very well there and I think that is an understatement: he did amazing before the goal," Van Dijk said. Coming from a centre-back with Van Dijk's standing in the squad, the endorsement carries weight.
Liverpool went into this season needing more from a right-back position complicated by Bradley's fitness issues and by Jeremie Frimpong's form prompting changes of his own. Araujo's ability to defend crosses and win headers fits a wider pattern: last season Liverpool lacked good headers in defence beyond Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. Araujo's aerial strength at right-back adds a dimension that neither Bradley nor a converted winger could easily replicate.
It also lets Milos Kerkez continue as an attacking full-back on the opposite flank without leaving Liverpool short defensively on the other side. Between Araujo, Konate and Van Dijk, Iraola now has three defenders who can compete in the air, even if two of them are playing in unfamiliar positions to make it work.
The arrangement sits oddly alongside Liverpool's usual recruitment approach. The club has built a squad around long-term, expensive signings, illustrated by the fact that Liverpool have started three players in the same match who each cost at least £100m. Bradley Barcola has been linked with a £123m move to Liverpool, a deal that would only add to that list. Araujo, by contrast, arrived for nothing beyond the option fee attached to his loan-style arrangement, a rare bargain inside a squad built on nine-figure fees.
Richard Hughes, the club's former director of football, had overseen the recruitment strategy that produced those big-money deals, and academy prospects such as Jeremy Jacquet, Giovanni Leoni, Ifeanyi Ndukwe and Mor Tala Ndiaye remain part of the club's longer-term defensive planning. Araujo is being treated as a short-term fix rather than a permanent right-back, and it is suggested Liverpool may still need to buy a specialist in that position next summer regardless of whether they trigger his option.
Liverpool's next fixture is at home to Fulham on 12 September 2026, and it offers Araujo a chance to make it three starts in a row at right-back at Anfield.
