Liverpool's New Journey Under Andoni Iraola
In Nashville’s heat, Liverpool start a very different journey. New head coach Andoni Iraola steps out for the first time in red, and the fanbase will finally get a glimpse of what his Liverpool might look like.
They face Sunderland at Geodis Park on Saturday, a 5pm kick-off local time (11pm BST) in the home of Nashville SC. It is a pre-season friendly in name, but for a club in transition it carries a weight that goes beyond fitness drills and minutes in the legs.
Before a ball is kicked, there will be a pause. After the death of Kevin Keegan earlier this week, both sets of players will wear black armbands and the stadium will rise for a minute’s applause – a shared tribute from two clubs he defined in different eras.
Iraola’s first impression
Iraola knows exactly what he has walked into. He is not just replacing a manager; he is stepping into a culture that demands intensity, emotion and results, immediately.
“For me, now, it is about creating a very good team to beat, a very difficult team to beat,” he said. “The team that I envision now - that I see and think of - if we become that team, I think we are going to be successful.
“The most important thing that we can deliver is our performances. It doesn't matter if I speak well, if I don't speak well, if I say the right things or if I don't say the right things. At the end people just want to see the team play well and deliver good results. I know this is 90% of my job.”
The words are clear enough. The question now is what that looks like on the pitch.
This is a huge leap from Bournemouth to Liverpool, but not everyone sees it as a gamble. “Ian Rush tells BBC Sport: “It's a big step up from Bournemouth but he deserves it. He's got all the credentials to be a top Liverpool manager and I'm pretty certain he could be.
“His style of football fits with Liverpool. It will help with the supporters too. Perhaps with Slot, they were a bit more defensive but supporters want to get behind the team. They'll only get behind a team if you're attacking or high pressing. The atmosphere was subdued at stages last season. This is Liverpool and we want to play a high pressing game and we'll know in the next few days what that looks like.”
That is the bar. High press, front foot, Anfield – and wherever Liverpool travel – breathing again.
A quiet arrival, a loud task
Geodis Park holds around 30,000, and there are still plenty of tickets left. For a club of Liverpool’s global pull, it is a surprisingly low-key backdrop. You would not immediately know that one of Europe’s giants has rolled into the Music City.
Inside the camp, the mood is very different. Iraola has 32 players with him in the United States, even if some are here more for their rehabilitation than for match minutes. The club decided it was better for those players to work around the squad than at an empty training ground back home.
The World Cup has stretched summer schedules and left gaps. Key names are still missing, though Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch will join up with the group for the second week of the tour. Alexis Mac Allister and Victor Munoz will arrive later still. Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson have not travelled.
The absences open space. Energy shifts to those who are here, hungry and fresh.
“Szoboszlai and Kerkez haven't been to the World Cup and I can tell you this from experience because I never went to the World Cup,” says Rush. “Those players have had a long rest and they'll be desperate to get back into it.”
The early weeks of pre-season have carried a youthful, positive feel. Harvey Elliott is back in the squad. Stefan Bajcetic, who last played for the club in 2024, has rejoined team training, a welcome sight for a midfield that will need depth and variety under a coach who demands intensity.
Iraola wants to see everything up close. Systems, partnerships, personalities. But even a brief glance at the squad tells its own story: this group still needs help before the Premier League starts.
Life after Salah
The biggest hole is obvious. Liverpool knew in March, if not earlier, that Mohamed Salah was leaving. He still has not been replaced.
The club want a winger. Bradley Barcola is the name that currently feels closest to the profile they want, but no deal is done. Until then, the solutions are internal and very young.
Rio Ngumoha, 17, has been training across both flanks, offering versatility on the right as well as his preferred left. Coaches speak highly of his talent, and Iraola will at least have a live option to test in that role in the coming days.
There is no question about Ngumoha’s ability. The question is timing, and how much responsibility a teenager can realistically shoulder in a side that expects to challenge at the top of the Premier League.
Rush does not sugar-coat the scale of the task. “He's still young but as the manager has said, we need someone to replace Salah and that won't be easy at all,” he says. “We've got Isak, who played well in the World Cup, and I hope he comes back as a new player and looking to prove a thing or two after last season.”
Isak’s return to the squad in week two will be watched closely. Liverpool need goals, but they also need a focal point around which Iraola’s pressing and attacking patterns can form.
Kids on the American stage
This tour will not just be about the established names easing back into rhythm. Across the next week, supporters will see more of Kieran Morrison, 19, who made his debut last season, as well as 18-year-olds Will Wright and Josh Sonni-Lambie.
There is also a buzz around 16-year-old Josh Abe, widely regarded as one of the standout young prospects in English football. These games, against Sunderland in Nashville, Wrexham in New York and Leeds in Chicago, give Iraola a rare laboratory: competitive enough to be real, loose enough to experiment.
The pressure will eventually narrow to one thing – results in the Premier League. For now, it is about something more fragile and more important: identity.
Can Iraola’s Liverpool press with conviction? Can they attack with the edge the supporters crave? Can a squad missing some of its stars still show the outline of a team “very difficult to beat,” as their new coach demands?
Those answers start to emerge in Tennessee, in a stadium that may not be full, in a city more famous for guitars than gegenpressing. The crowd might be smaller than Liverpool are used to, the occasion labelled “pre-season,” but for Iraola this feels like something else entirely: the first note of a new era, and it has to be in tune.
