Liverpool star now in line to stay, we didn't see it coming

One Liverpool star suddenly looks like staying. We didn't see this one coming at all.

Andoni Iraola is running the rule over his squad right now. Though, this isn't the squad he'll have come the start of the season - it's actually a very depleted one.

Part of that is certainly that players aren't all back from the World Cup. Notably, Virgil van Dijk remains on holiday after a gruelling season.

But more importantly, Liverpool lost several key players this summer and simply haven't replaced them. Mohamed Salah is the biggest name, though Ibrahima Konate and Andy Robertson also left on free transfers.

None have been directly replaced. We do imagine Jeremy Jacquet will be the Konate successor, even if he was signed long before Liverpool's former no.5 chose to leave, and Kostas Tsimikas returns from his loan with AS Roma to play backup to Milos Kerkez.

That's hardly enough to cover the squad, though. Liverpool are light up top and their midfield feels remarkably imbalanced - and that's why it now looks incredibly likely that Harvey Elliott remains with the club this season.

Elliott, after all, can play from the right to cover any potential new signing (we still assume there will be one). Importantly, he can also cover Florian Wirtz at no.10 and that's an important one.

Dominik Szoboszlai can also cover there but a lack of midfielders means he's almost certainly covering the middle, too. Liverpool will need another no.10 just to reduce the strain on the Hungarian.

Which again points to Elliott. He can fill the void nicely, offering much great squad depth and, importantly, homegrown status - something the squad badly lacks right now.