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Adam Wharton: The Successor Liverpool Cannot Ignore

In a season where Liverpool’s midfield has veered between flimsy, lightweight and outright overwhelmed, the conversation around the long-term structure of the engine room is rightly shifting toward functionality rather than fantasy. For all the excitement of last summer’s £450m overhaul, it has become painfully clear that too many technicians and not enough tacticians have left Arne Slot with a puzzle he cannot yet solve. And with Alexis Mac Allister still nowhere near the form that made him indispensable last year, the growing noise around Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton — reportedly pushing for a summer 2026 move — is becoming impossible to ignore.

This isn’t about another shiny signing. This is about Liverpool regaining control of matches, building a platform, and signing players who suit the league they’re trying to dominate. The progression from the defence has been lacklustre and uninspiring in these autumn months, with a team once dependent on Trent Alexander-Arnold struggling to drive forward from their defensive third.

Therefore, Wharton, quietly thriving in an increasingly impressive Palace side, looks every bit the heir that the Reds will soon require, and could be the deep-lying controller that allows evolution to take place.

The Mac Allister Question and a Madrid-Shaped Cloud

Mac Allister is a wonderful footballer — a technician with elegance, intelligence and a leadership profile that made him captain of a World Cup-winning nation. But at Liverpool this season, he’s looked like a man caught between roles and overwhelmed by adversity. Too deep to influence games, too isolated to dictate tempo, and too easily pressed out of matches where second balls and physical duels define the narrative. The role of controller has been wiped clean and questions may start to be asked as to when to cash in.

The fall off has left the midfield disjointed and the defence exposed, two issues that have contributed heavily to the collapse of control Liverpool pride themselves on. Real Madrid’s interest, long-standing and predictable, now feels like more than gossip, especially when a £100m price range could be demanded. If the Spanish giants formalise a bid next summer — and if Mac Allister has a year of stop-start form — the club will have a serious decision to make.

In truth, Liverpool may need to move on not because Mac Allister is poor, but because the system around him no longer suits his strengths. Slot needs a modern anchorman who can take the ball on the half-turn, break lines, dominate transitions and protect the spaces Liverpool simply cannot manage right now.

Enter Wharton.

At just 21, he’s already one of the Premier League’s most intelligent defensive midfielders. His press resistance is outstanding, he wins duels with timing rather than brute force, and he has that rare quality Liverpool fans crave — he makes the game look calm when the match around him is anything but. Thiago was once the masterful man in possession, which is something that is needed once again.

A Future Partnership Built on Power and Intellect

If Liverpool can land Wharton in 2026, the most tantalising outcome is what he could form with another potential arrival: Elliott Anderson. While Wharton provides the structure, the balance and the metronomic control, Anderson offers the bite, mobility and ball-winning intensity that Liverpool’s current midfield simply lacks.

Together, the pair could reshape the identity of a unit that has drifted alarmingly. Anderson’s ferocity alongside Wharton’s cerebral composure gives you something Liverpool haven’t possessed since Fabinho operated at his peak: a midfield that scares people. A midfield that hunts. A midfield that dictates. With Dominik Szoboszlai making that pair a threesome, it would see teams overrun, in a complete switch of fortunes.

It’s no exaggeration to say that a Wharton–Anderson axis could become the foundation of the next great Liverpool side — powerful enough to withstand Premier League chaos, intelligent enough to dominate possession and balanced enough to release the creative brilliance of Wirtz and Szoboszlai ahead of them.

With Mac Allister wobbling and Madrid circling, Liverpool’s next midfield evolution is starting to write itself. Now the club must make sure they’re brave enough — and smart enough — to act.

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