Liverpool’s Brand-New Defense Is Taking Shape Ahead of 2026–27 Season
Liverpool’s Brand-New Defense Is Taking Shape Ahead of 2026–27 Season
Ibrahima Konaté has moved on but Liverpool welcomed a new face this week.Jamie Spencer|
Liverpool could start the first day of the new season with the past and the future side by side in central defense, after summer signing Jérémy Jacquet confirmed he has fully recovered from a long-term shoulder injury.
Jacquet has now completed a £60 million ($79.7 million) transfer from Rennes that was pre-arranged in February. The 20-year-old Frenchman effectively replaces compatriot Ibrahima Konaté, who has signed with Real Madrid as a free agent, and joins a group of center backs led by Virgil van Dijk.
Giovanni Leoni, who suffered an ACL tear just over nine months ago, has also been tipped to return in time for preseason—ahead of the original anticipated 12-month schedule. Joe Gomez is the only other recognized center back in the first-team squad.
Any lingering doubts that Jacquet’s shoulder, hurt only five days after agreeing to become the second-most expensive defender in Liverpool history, will continue to be a problem into preseason have been allayed by the player himself.
“I feel much improved and I will be 100% ready [for the start of preseason],” Jacquet told Liverpool’s official website, adding, “I’m a little ahead of schedule.
“I was given the go-ahead to start a program of training with the group [at Rennes], but it was a bit late to be with the team. But with continued hard work I’ll be fully fit before the [2026–27] season.”
When Will Jérémy Jacquet Make his Liverpool Debut?
Liverpool are expected to begin preseason training around July 13, for which Jacquet should be ready to hit the ground running. Not a national team player, there is no concern about World Cup participation delaying his start date.
The majority of the squad is available from day one, while of those that did go to the World Cup— Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch—have already been eliminated. A mandatory three-week break ensues, but that will expire by the time Liverpool are due to face Sunderland in Nashville to kick off a U.S. tour on July 25.
It stands to reason that Sunderland could be Jacquet’s unofficial Liverpool debut.
After also facing Wrexham and Leeds United stateside, before hosting Monaco and Como back home at Anfield, the Premier League campaign opens on August 23 away at Newcastle United.
Van Dijk will be far enough removed from the World Cup by that stage to have no questions about his starting status. Jacquet, who turns 21 years old this month, could be considered the less risky option than Leoni to partner the aging Dutchman.
Liverpool’s New Defense in 2026–27
This season will be a huge opportunity for Jacquet to learn from Van Dijk before he ultimately is tasked with replacing him, sooner rather than later. The Reds captain turns 35 next week and has now entered the final 12 months of the two-year contract he signed in 2024. This season is likely to be his last with Liverpool, and plausibly even the last of his entire career.
For now, it seems the most logical partnership for new manager Andoni Iraola to put faith in.
At right back, the only option for now is Jeremie Frimpong, as a result of Conor Bradley’s anticipated return from injury scheduled after the season has started. On the left, there are no questions about Milos Kerkez now that Andy Robertson has also been released.
Liverpool fans could soon be getting used to a new starting goalkeeper amid ongoing uncertainty about Alisson’s future and links with a summer move—primarily Juventus. Giorgi Mamardashvili, brought in for this very eventuality, is waiting in the wings.
READ THE LATEST LIVERPOOL NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FC
Published 50 minutes ago | Modified 50 minutes ago
JAMIE SPENCERJamie Spencer is a freelance editor and writer for Sports Illustrated FC. Jamie fell in love with football in the mid-90s and specializes in the Premier League, Manchester United, the women’s game and old school nostalgia.
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Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA's rising star after stunning upset in Colorado- US News
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Politics
Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
By Ryan King Published July 1, 2026, 2:06 p.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on GoogleWASHINGTON — Democratic socialism is spreading West.
Political newcomer Melat Kiros, 29, who took down 15-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Col.) in a stunning primary upset Tuesday, is riding a wave of anti-Israel and anti-ICE sentiment sweeping her party.
The Ethiopian-born PhD student has pushed to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), suggested that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks were “inevitable,” downplayed suggestions that a firebombing of a Jewish rally was an act of antisemitism, and more.
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Once in the House of Representatives, which is considered likely because she’s in a safe blue district, Kiros has vowed to push Democrats as far left as possible and to oppose Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) becoming speaker.
Political awakening
Kiros refined many of her far-left views in law school at Notre Dame in the early 2020s, a period she describes as her political awakening, as the country was roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic and peak wokeness.
“I literally watched the Federalist Society handpicking some of my classmates onto the judge track in their decades-long bid to pack the courts,” she complained, according to Vox. “…I just lost faith in the system; I think a lot of young people did.”
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After law school in 2022, she joined the law firm Sidley Austin in New York, where she worked as a regulatory and enforcement associate. The following year, she was fired for writing a viral open letter lambasting law firms for pushing to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.
“By chilling future lawyers’ employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government’s actions and its legitimacy, you are complicit in Israel’s weaponization of anti-Semitism against legitimate concerns for the right of self-determination and the livelihood of the Palestinian people,” she wrote in the missive.
Sidley Austin demanded she take the letter down, but Kiros claims she refused and was fired as a result.
“I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word and I always will,” she boasted during her victory speech Tuesday.
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That move drew headlines and boosted her name recognition in lefty circles.
After losing her law gig, Kiros moved back to Colorado, where her family had immigrated while she was just 11-months-old. Her father had been picked in America’s Diversity Visa Lottery, per her campaign website.
Back home, she enrolled in a PhD program in public policy and worked as a barista.
Then, in the middle of last year, she decided to launch a seemingly long-shot primary challenge against DeGette, who is widely considered to be a very progressive lawmaker and has served in Congress longer than Kiros has been alive.
DeGette had the backing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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But Kiros’ candidacy caught fire with the DSA and other lefty groups that were hunting for candidates to take on incumbent Democrats and push the party further leftwards.
One of the major differences between the two was Kiros’ tougher stance against Israel. DeGette faced grassroots pushback for supporting defensive aid to Israel.
Kiros, however, made tough talk against the Jewish state a feature of her campaign.
For example, she told notorious lefty streamer Hasan Piker that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack was an “inevitable consequence of apartheid,” though she later clarified she wasn’t trying to say it was justified.
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Piker is a very controversial streamer, having declared that “America deserved 9/11″ and praised the “brave mujahideen” who injured Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas).
In a similar vein, she told 9News journalist Kyle Clark that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were an “inevitable consequence” of US foreign policy.
Kiros has stirred local controversy for downplaying the role of antisemitism in the June 1, 2025, firebombing attack at a weekly Jewish gathering aimed at bringing attention to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. One person was killed and a dozen were injured in that attack.
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The attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, screamed “Free Palestine” before later stating that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” according to the FBI.
Kiros repeatedly declined to call it antisemitism and told NOTUS that it wasn’t “entirely obvious that it was just motivated by antisemitism.”
Many of her positions are similar to those of other DSA members, including support for Medicare for All, a modified Green New Deal, and mass amnesty. Kiros also wants a 10% slash in Pentagon spending.
“People are seeing that capitalism is responsible for a lot of the degradation that we’re seeing in our economy, that we’re seeing in our democracy, that we’re certainly seeing in our climate as well,” she claimed in a recent interview.
“They’re demanding a new way to organize our economy.”
Should she win in November, she will be the first Gen. Z woman to serve in Congress and the second Zoomer overall, after Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.)
She is riding a socialist revolt within the Democratic Party, as far-left candidates have won primaries across New York, Maine, Illinois, and elsewhere heading into the midterms.
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