Andoni Iraola's Pre-Season Challenges at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola’s first Liverpool pre-season is already ticking into gear, but the real work starts next week. By then, the full squad will be back at the AXA Training Centre, a long flight to the United States looming on July 20 and a bruised club looking for a reset after a disappointing campaign.

This is where a new era is supposed to take shape. And for Iraola, three issues stand out straight away.

1. Fast‑tracking Jeremy Jacquet

Jeremy Jacquet turns 21 on Monday. He also turns up at Liverpool as a £60m centre-back who hasn’t kicked a ball since a shoulder injury ended his season in February.

There’s no gentle introduction at this level. Not at this club.

Liverpool’s hierarchy would not have signed off such a fee if they had any doubts about his mentality, and the context around him only sharpens the focus. Giovanni Leoni is still working his way back from an ACL injury suffered 10 months ago, which leaves Jacquet likely to partner Joe Gomez throughout the summer friendlies.

So the stakes are clear. This pre-season is about more than minutes in the legs for the Frenchman. It’s about proving he can be ready, quickly, to stand alongside Virgil van Dijk in the Premier League.

Jacquet’s unveiling last week showed a player eager to impress, shoulders squared to the challenge rather than hunched by the pressure. Liverpool will want that attitude to translate into performances across the tour, where he will be the only new signing on show. Every touch will be watched. Every duel judged, even if the games themselves are officially just about fitness.

Iraola’s track record helps. At Bournemouth, he turned Dean Huijsen from a promising defender into a Spain international and, ultimately, a £60m signing for Real Madrid. That’s not a coincidence; it’s a reference point. Liverpool have paid for potential, but they’ve also hired a coach who has shown he can turn raw talent into elite output.

Jacquet is the first major defensive project of this new regime. Get him settled, get him confident, get him understanding the demands of playing behind a high Liverpool line. Do that, and Iraola solves one of the most pressing questions of his early tenure before a competitive ball is even kicked.

2. Curtis Jones: stay, go, or reset?

Curtis Jones returns from holiday in Mallorca next week with his Liverpool future still hanging in the balance.

Inter have already tested the water twice. Their second offer, just under £22m, was pushed back. Liverpool’s stance is clear enough: if they are to sell, it will be closer to £35m. That gap in valuation has left talks stalling, and some at Anfield are beginning to wonder if the whole thing has quietly ground to a halt.

This is where Iraola steps in.

With Alexis Mac Allister still at the World Cup and Ryan Gravenberch on his break, there is a vacancy in midfield for pre-season. A real one. For a city-born Academy graduate who has grown up with the club, that’s not just a chance, it’s a crossroads.

Jones does not dream of leaving Liverpool. But he does want to play. Inter and Aston Villa have both sensed an opening, reading his reduced game time as a potential crack in the relationship. Pre-season will tell whether that crack can be sealed or whether it widens.

On tour, the shirt is there for him, at least temporarily. If Jones impresses Iraola in the United States, he can force his way back into the Premier League picture, especially while Mac Allister is away. If he drifts, the logic of a sale becomes harder to ignore for all involved.

The key will be honesty. Iraola needs to know whether Jones is ready for a fresh start at Liverpool under a new manager, or whether his mind is already drifting towards a new challenge. Those conversations, behind closed doors next week, could shape not only Jones’ career but also how Liverpool configure a midfield that has already been through one major rebuild.

For a coach walking into a dressing room full of reputations and expectations, how he handles a homegrown talent at a delicate moment will say plenty about the tone of this new era.

3. Rio Ngumoha and the right‑wing question

Liverpool’s recruitment drive this summer has a clear theme: wingers, and especially those who like to start from the left.

They have triggered a £34.5m release clause in Victor Munoz’s Osasuna contract. They have told RB Leipzig they are prepared to go to £86m for Yan Diomande. They hold an interest in Bradley Barcola at Paris Saint-Germain. All three are at their most natural and dangerous off the left.

At the same time, the club are theoretically planning for life after Mohamed Salah on the right of the front three. The idea of spending huge money on someone and then asking him to shift flanks sits uneasily with some within the club. It’s a valid concern.

So another idea has gained traction: Rio Ngumoha as a right-sided attacker.

Twelve months ago, Ngumoha was a name for the future. By the end of last season, he was a Liverpool starter and an England international. His first Premier League goal arrived at Newcastle United, in that breathless 3-2 win just days before his 17th birthday. From there, his trajectory only climbed.

He finished the campaign with a player-of-the-match performance for England against New Zealand in the United States last month, narrowly missing out on a World Cup spot. Those displays hardened Liverpool’s resolve. They want to tie him down to a new contract once he turns 18 in late August, and they have no intention of letting Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich prise him away.

The interesting wrinkle is positional. Ngumoha’s England cameo in America came on the right. In an era dominated by inverted wingers cutting inside onto their stronger foot, Liverpool are openly debating something more old-fashioned: using him as a traditional wideman, staying wide, going on the outside, and whipping balls into the box.

That discussion is not just tactical theory. It feeds directly into a bigger problem: how to unlock £125m striker Alexander Isak and increase the quality of chances he receives. A natural right-sided threat, capable of stretching defences and delivering from the byline, could change the profile of Liverpool’s attack.

Ngumoha’s relative inexperience compared to targets like Barcola might actually work in Iraola’s favour. At 17, even with his rapid rise, he is still at the very start of his career. He is malleable. A coach with Iraola’s reputation for improving young forwards – as seen with Eli Junior Kroupi, Rayan and Antoine Semenyo at Bournemouth – will relish the opportunity to shape him.

Pre-season will offer the first real clues. Does Iraola keep Ngumoha on the left, where he has already flourished, or does he begin the process of moulding him into the long-term solution on the right?

The answer will echo far beyond this summer tour. It will influence transfer decisions, the balance of the front line, and the way Liverpool build around Isak in the years to come.

Three problems, then, but also three opportunities. Bed in a £60m centre-back. Resolve the future of a homegrown midfielder. Decide whether a teenage winger can become the cornerstone of a new-look attack.

Iraola’s first pre-season at Liverpool is not just about fitness drills and friendly results. It is about making calls that will define what this team looks like when the real business starts – and who will be leading it on the pitch when it does.