{"id":807828,"date":"2026-10-19T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807828\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:02:08","slug":"ronald-araujo-the-stopgap-solution-fixing-liverpools-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807828\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Araujo: The stopgap solution fixing Liverpool&#8217;s problems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Seeing Ronald Araujo with the South American drink known as Mate is becoming a regularity around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Those close to the 27-year-old say that true to his Uruguayan heritage, he takes the caffeinated beverage &#8211; made by steeping dry leaves in warm water &#8211; wherever he goes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The sight of defender Araujo in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>&#8216;s starting line-up is also becoming the norm this season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For all the focus on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>&#8216;s big-money signings, it is the one they got on loan that is increasingly looking like one of their most important deals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Since arriving on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/c70gk0ry07ko\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">season-long loan from Barcelona<\/a>, Araujo has started eight of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>&#8216;s 10 games under Andoni Iraola, with six of those appearances coming at right-back and four at centre-back. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last week, he scored his first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a> goal with a header against LASK and there was a backheel assist for Dominik Szoboszlai against Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With Conor Bradley out since January with a knee injury and Jeremie Frimpong now sidelined until the November international break with a muscle injury, Araujo, who is taking English lessons, is seizing the chance to showcase the versatility and experience that attracted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a> to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I came from a big side, as is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>. I think people here, it&#8217;s almost like they are more intense when you go down the street, when you go out to the centre of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>, or when you go out to eat something. But that&#8217;s lovely. You see how they experience football themselves,&#8221; Araujo said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I am really happy here. My family is very happy and that&#8217;s also very important. I&#8217;m just really hungry to go on this season and give the best I can of myself and continue to learn and grow as a player. I&#8217;m having that game time and that&#8217;s what I want and then we&#8217;ll see what happens and what I want for the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At Barcelona last season, Araujo was granted a leave of absence to prioritise his mental health and the move to England in the summer felt like one that suited all parties &#8211; even if he was initially seen as a stopgap solution for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Araujo, who has 29 caps for Uruguay, took a wage cut and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a> have an option to buy him in the summer for \u00a347m. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is a hefty sum and remains an unlikely outcome, but the understanding for now is that Araujo is just happy to show his qualities to everyone once again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s very early to talk about these things,&#8221; he said, when asked about his future. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m just trying to enjoy every day and continue to develop and to play and to give what&#8217;s required of me to have that confidence. I&#8217;m really happy to be here but it&#8217;s a bit early to be talking about those things.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seeing Ronald Araujo with the South American drink known as Mate is becoming a regularity around Liverpool. Those&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}