The problem nobody fully solved

For all the excitement surrounding Liverpool's summer rebuild, one headache carried over from last season with uncomfortable familiarity. The right-back position, which had become so uniquely associated with Trent Alexander-Arnold's genius, was never truly resolved. Jeremie Frimpong came in, Conor Bradley suffered a serious knee injury at Arsenal in January, and at various points last season Joe Gomez, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and even Curtis Jones were all pressed into service there. That last one, a midfielder ending his Liverpool career filling in at right-back, tells you everything you need to know about how desperate things became.

Bradley remains the long-term answer, with his aggression and athleticism seen as the right blend for a role that no one is expected to replicate in the way Alexander-Arnold once defined it. But the Northern Ireland international is still some way off a return, and in the meantime Andoni Iraola needed something to plug the gap. What he found was rather unexpected.

Araujo finds a home on the right

Ronald Araujo is a centre-back by trade and, if you asked him, almost certainly by preference. But his interpretation of the right-back role has been one of the quiet stories of Liverpool's early season, underpinning a defence that has now kept three consecutive Premier League clean sheets for the first time since the opening weeks of last season's title-winning campaign. For a backline that was so frequently troubled on that right side twelve months ago, that is no small thing.

Virgil van Dijk, not a man who dishes out compliments for the sake of it, was full of praise after the 1-0 win before the international break. "He is a great player," the club captain said. "I don't think he was the captain of Barcelona for no reason. He is a fantastic player. He is not a natural right-back but he has filled in the best way possible and I am pleased for him. It has been an intense couple of weeks for him. So hopefully now in this international break, he can get a little bit of rest before the chaos will start when we come back. It is down to the whole team, but obviously he did very well so far."

There was a period last season when Araujo's Barcelona story looked like it might end in difficult circumstances. A red card in a Champions League defeat to Chelsea brought a wave of online criticism, and he subsequently requested time away from the club for what manager Hansi Flick described as "a private situation." He returned, captained the side in a Copa del Rey win, and ultimately earned a loan move to Anfield after taking a pay-cut to make it happen. That willingness to sacrifice financially to get his career back on track clearly impressed Liverpool's decision-makers.

What the £47m question actually means

Araujo's arrival was never just about defensive cover. Leadership has been a genuine concern at Liverpool since the departures of Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah last summer, and a 27-year-old who captained Barcelona and leads his national side was seen as someone who could help fill that void. Iraola has already challenged him to improve his English so that wisdom can actually be communicated in the dressing room, which suggests the club see this as a long-term relationship worth nurturing.

New signing Jeremy Jacquet has also caught the eye, with even France manager Zinedine Zidane among those who have noted the youngster's form since arriving at Anfield. Liverpool are building something here, even if the full shape of it is not yet visible. Araujo's loan places him in a select company alongside some of Anfield's more forgettable temporary acquisitions, but the early evidence suggests he belongs in a very different category to Arthur Melo or Ozan Kabak.

At £47m, a permanent deal would be a serious commitment. Liverpool were simultaneously locked in negotiations over a £123m move for Bradley Barcola when Araujo arrived, so the club clearly have the ambition to spend when they believe in a player. Whether Araujo earns that permanent switch over the course of this season is the question that will quietly follow him through every clean sheet and every crunching tackle between now and May.