Liverpool's New Era Under Iraola: Training Insights and Player Dynamics
Robert Lewandowski skied a penalty into the grey Chicago sky as Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool era began a few yards away. One training session winding down, another just starting up. A 37-year-old legend finishing drills for Chicago Fire while a new project in red quietly took shape across the same complex.
It was a fitting backdrop. One generation fine-tuning, another trying to define itself.
Szoboszlai, Jones and a storm in a teacup
Earlier in the week, a brief clip had set social media humming: Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in a heated exchange at the end of Liverpool’s win over Wrexham in New York, Kostas Tsimikas hovering nearby. Jones has been linked with Inter Milan, Szoboszlai is one of the standard-bearers of the new midfield, and the footage looked combustible enough to fuel a few theories.
Szoboszlai moved quickly to cool it on Thursday, insisting the players were “in the same boat”, all pushing for the same thing. On Friday, the body language did the talking for him.
Szoboszlai, Jones and Tsimikas emerged together for training, laughing, juggling the ball between them, deliberately putting the show on right in front of the cameras. All smiles. No trace of tension.
The flashpoint is understood to have stemmed from Szoboszlai handing the captain’s armband to Tsimikas instead of Jones. A small gesture, a big reaction, and a sharp reminder of how every moment is now filmed from every angle. Passion is part of an elite dressing room; public spats are not ideal when anyone in the stands can become a broadcaster with a swipe of their thumb.
For Iraola, it underlined something else: Liverpool still need a formal vice-captain. Andy Robertson’s departure has left that role vacant, and the new head coach will have to decide quickly who carries that authority when the armband moves on.
Big names back on the grass
On the pitch, there was more encouraging news. Record signing Alexander Isak returned to full training with the group this week. He had missed the trip to New York, as had Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch, when Liverpool edged Wrexham 1-0 in their second pre-season outing.
All three are expected to be involved on Sunday against Leeds at Soldier Field, a welcome injection of quality as Iraola starts to shape something closer to his first-choice side.
Not everyone made it out onto the grass. Jeremy Jacquet, still working his way back from the shoulder injury he suffered in February, missed the session but put in time in the gym as the club manage his recovery carefully. Despite Iraola suggesting earlier in the week that the centre-back would feature this weekend, he must now be considered a doubt.
Joe Gomez, already ruled out for the start of the Premier League season, was also confined to the gym, another senior defender watching on as the tempo picked up outside.
Iraola’s imprint: intensity, detail, noise
Once the warm-up finished, the tone changed. Iraola’s drills snapped into life.
He was heavily involved, constantly on the move, driving the tempo. His voice cut across the pitches: “Play in possession.” “Quicker, quicker.” Simple phrases, repeated often, drilling home the idea that Liverpool will not be drifting through games under their new manager.
Players celebrated small wins in mini-games, high-fiving, shouting, treating every goal as a moment to seize. The mood stayed light, but the work was sharp. Iraola stepped in frequently, stopping play to adjust a position, correct a run, clarify a passing angle. This was not a distant overseer; this was a coach in the middle of the storm, shaping it in real time.
The group eventually split. One cluster headed to a smaller pitch for a nine-a-side match, where the space tightened and decisions had to be made at speed. The other stayed back to focus on set-pieces with assistants Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper.
Wirtz took charge of corners, whipping deliveries in as the staff fine-tuned movements in the box. Elphick even pulled on a bib to get involved, a hands-on session that matched the head coach’s own style.
Watching from the sidelines, quietly, was Mike Gordon. The Fenway Sports Group president is back at the heart of Liverpool’s operations and is expected at Soldier Field on Sunday. His presence in Chicago underlined the sense that this pre-season tour is not a simple fitness exercise, but the opening chapter of a new regime the ownership want to see up close.
Old legends, new ideas
Off the pitch, Iraola is also doing the softer work of embedding himself into Liverpool’s fabric.
On Thursday night, the squad gathered for a team dinner. Afterward, the new head coach shared a beer with club greats Phil Thompson and Robbie Fowler. Thompson later said they spoke about a range of topics: the coming season, their families, the road ahead.
It was a small moment, but a telling one. Iraola was not even born when Thompson lifted the third of his three European Cups for Liverpool, yet he understands exactly what those figures represent. Recognising the weight of that history, and the voices that still carry it, matters in a club where the past is never far from the present.
Back at the Chicago Fire performance centre, Lewandowski’s session ended and the MLS players drifted away. Liverpool stayed out under the heavy clouds, running, pressing, listening, shouting. Three weeks remain until Iraola walks out for his first Premier League game as Liverpool manager.
The seeds of that debut are being sown here, in the Windy City. How quickly they grow will define what this new Liverpool looks like when the real games begin.
