Andoni Iraola's Liverpool Pre-Season Challenges
Andoni Iraola’s first Liverpool pre-season has barely begun and already the clock is ticking.
The new head coach will only have his full group together from July 14, six days before they fly to the United States. That is not much time to reshape a side still nursing the scars of a disappointing campaign. It is, however, enough to tackle three issues that could define his opening months at Anfield.
1. Fast‑tracking Jeremy Jacquet
Jeremy Jacquet turns 21 on Monday. He also turns up at Liverpool as a £60m centre-back coming off shoulder surgery and a season cut short in February.
It is a lot to carry into a new dressing room.
Liverpool’s hierarchy would not have pushed that fee across the table if they doubted his temperament. They see a long-term partner for Virgil van Dijk. Iraola now has to turn that projection into a functioning reality, and quickly.
With Giovanni Leoni still recovering from the ACL injury he suffered 10 months ago, Jacquet is expected to spend the summer alongside Joe Gomez at centre-back. Those games may be billed as conditioning exercises, but for the Frenchman they will feel like auditions. Every touch, every duel, every recovery run will be scrutinised as supporters and staff alike search for signs that he can anchor the defence for years to come.
There is encouragement in Iraola’s track record. At Bournemouth he took Dean Huijsen, polished his raw talent and helped turn him into a Spain international and then a £60m signing for Real Madrid. That is not a coincidence. It is a blueprint.
Now the same expectations will follow Jacquet across the Atlantic. He will be the only new signing on tour, the fresh face in every team photo, the player cameras linger on during warm-ups. The club can talk about patience and process, but the reality is simple: Iraola must use this pre-season to get Jacquet up to Premier League speed and ready to stand next to van Dijk when the serious business starts.
If Liverpool are to move on from last season’s defensive frailties, that partnership cannot wait until winter.
2. Curtis Jones: stay, go, or start again?
Curtis Jones returns from his holiday in Mallorca next week with more on his mind than just fitness tests.
His future is wide open. Inter have already made two attempts to prise him away, the latest coming in an offer just under £22m. Liverpool pushed it back. Reluctantly, they would listen at around £35m, but the gap in valuation is large enough that talks have stalled and may not restart.
So Jones walks back into the AXA Training Centre facing a choice that could shape his career. Stay and fight for a central role under a new manager, or push for a move while interest is hot.
The landscape he walks into is intriguing. Alexis Mac Allister is still at the World Cup. Ryan Gravenberch is on holiday. A midfield slot is there to be claimed in the early weeks of pre-season, and Jones, city born and academy raised, knows the opportunity as well as anyone.
In an ideal world, he does not leave his boyhood club. Yet Inter and Aston Villa have both sensed vulnerability, reading his reduced game-time as an opening. They are not wrong to test Liverpool’s resolve.
This is where Iraola steps in. Before any decision on the market, there has to be clarity in the manager’s office. What role does he see for Jones? How central is he to the new system? Is this a fresh start or a gentle nudge towards the exit?
If Jones impresses on tour, the path back into the Premier League XI is clear, at least while Mac Allister is away. The shirt is there. But Iraola will need more than a good week in America. He will want assurance that Jones is committed to the project, not half-turned towards “pastures new”.
Those conversations in the coming days will echo far beyond pre-season. They will decide whether Liverpool reshape their midfield around one of their own, or cash in and start again.
3. Rio Ngumoha and the right‑wing question
Liverpool’s recruitment this summer has told its own story. They have triggered Victor Munoz’s £34.5m release clause at Osasuna. They have informed RB Leipzig they are willing to go to £86m for Yan Diomande. They have tracked Bradley Barcola at Paris Saint-Germain.
Three players. All comfortable off the left.
All this while the club wrestles with the looming question of life after Mohamed Salah on the right of the front three. The idea of paying huge fees for a winger only to ask him to switch flanks does not sit well with everyone at Anfield.
So another idea has gathered pace: Rio Ngumoha as a right-sided attacker.
Twelve months ago, he was a promising youngster. Last season changed everything. Ngumoha exploded into the first-team picture, scored his first Premier League goal at Newcastle United in that wild 3-2 win just days before his 17th birthday, and finished the campaign not just as a Liverpool starter but as an England international.
He then produced a player-of-the-match display against New Zealand in the United States last month, only narrowly missing out on a World Cup spot. That kind of rise forces decisions.
Liverpool intend to reward him. A new contract will be discussed when he turns 18 in late August, and they have no desire to see Bayern Munich turn admiration into something more concrete. The club’s stance is firm: Ngumoha is not leaving.
The tactical question is where he plays. His cameo for England in America came on the right. In an era dominated by inverted wingers cutting inside onto their stronger foot, Liverpool are openly debating whether to go against the grain and use Ngumoha as a more traditional wideman on that flank: hugging the touchline, beating full-backs on the outside, whipping balls into the box.
There is logic in that shift. Liverpool must find a way to unlock £125m striker Alexander Isak on a more regular basis. He needs service, especially from wide areas, and a right-sided Ngumoha driving to the byline could be one of the most direct ways to feed him.
Given his limited senior experience, especially compared with targets such as Barcola, Iraola may feel he can still mould Ngumoha into a different type of winger. The teenager is at the very start of his career, still malleable, still learning what kind of forward he will become.
Where he lines up this summer will be a clue to Liverpool’s long-term attacking plan as much as to his own development.
For Iraola, this is exactly the kind of project that attracted Liverpool in the first place. At Bournemouth he elevated young forwards like Eli Junior Kroupi, Rayan and Antoine Semenyo, sharpening their movement and end product. Now he has a 17-year-old with electric feet, growing confidence and the potential to change the geometry of Liverpool’s attack.
A new centre-back to bed in. A homegrown midfielder at a crossroads. A teenage winger who might just be the answer on the right.
Pre-season in the United States will not decide Liverpool’s season. But for Iraola, it will set the terms of it.
