Liverpool's last-minute bid confirms Andoni Iraola's short-term plans

Andoni Iraola will be hoping that his Liverpool squad finally kicks off soon.

The Spaniard was expected to make a massive difference at Anfield and, while he may have got them scoring, their defence is still nowhere near strong enough.

In the Premier League this season, Liverpool have bagged as many goals as they have conceded and, while that may mean that they're currently unbeaten, the Reds' fanbase will have certainly been hoping to see a bit more of an improvement than they have.

Despite this, the summer transfer window did bring four new players in and, even though it's now slammed shut, the aftermath of the window is still bubbling on.

So, with this in mind, it's hardly surprising to see that one of Iraola's short-term plans for his Liverpool squad have now been confirmed.

Liverpool made a last-minute bid for Chelsea's Malo Gusto

Liverpool's defence was one of their main areas that they needed to strengthen.

Ibrahima Konate and Andy Robertson both exited for nothing which meant that they both had to be replaced.

And, since Joe Gomez is hardly available due to the sheer number of injuries he suffers, their defence was in a bad way.

Throughout the summer, many new defenders were linked with Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo eventually being the only ones brought in.

Both of these players will obviously help Liverpool out massively this term but, with the number of upgrades that their rivals have made this season, it's unclear how far the Reds' four new signings will be able to take them.

That's why it hardly came as a surprise to see the Anfield outfit make a last-minute bid for Malo Gusto on 1 September.

"Liverpool made a final push today to sign Malo Gusto on loan, but the attempt ended without success" Fabrice Hawkins wrote.

"The Reds were only willing to consider a loan with no mandatory buy clause, while Chelsea were pushing for a permanent transfer.

"Liverpool simply don’t have the financial means to make a permanent deal happen."

Conor Bradley clearly can't be relied upon by Andoni Iraola

If all of Liverpool's players were fit, they'd probably have an extremely solid squad.

However, with Hugo Ekitike and Conor Bradley both out of action until who knows when, neither of them can be classed as genuine options for Liverpool at the moment.

In fact, in Bradley's case, he probably can't ever be seen as a long-term option for Liverpool.

No matter how hard the Reds try, the Northern Irishman always ends up side-lined due to injury at one point or another and, even though ability-wise, he's easily the Reds' best right-back, his unreliability really hinders him

It's clear that Iraola can see this and, since he tried to sign Gusto on deadline day, it's clear that Bradley isn't in his plans for the short-term future.

If Liverpool want to get back to their best and start fighting for silverware again, they need to start getting serious and axing those who aren't good enough or those who just aren't available.

Because, one day, it's going to come back and hurt them.