Andoni Iraola's Early Impressions of McConnell and Koumas at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola has been at Liverpool only a matter of weeks, but two names are already forcing their way into his thoughts: James McConnell and Lewis Koumas.

They are not new signings. They are not marquee arrivals. They are academy products who, under the previous regime, drifted to the fringes and out on loan. Under Iraola, that might be about to change.

McConnell and Koumas turn heads

McConnell, a 21-year-old midfielder with 13 senior appearances to his name, spent last season rebuilding his game at Ajax after Arne Slot decided he was not yet ready to play regularly at Anfield. It was a bold call at the time, but the loan has clearly hardened him.

Koumas, 20, has taken the longer, less glamorous road. The Wales international, capable of playing wide or through the middle, has been shuttled between Stoke City, Birmingham City and Hull City. For Liverpool, he has just a single first-team outing. Slot did not use him once and turned to McConnell only four times.

Those numbers tell their own story. Under Slot, the pair were squad assets, not central pieces.

Now the picture is shifting. According to journalist Alan Nixon, Iraola has been “blown away” by what he has seen from both players in his early days at the club and is seriously considering folding them into his first-team squad next season. Interest from other clubs in fresh loan deals is there, as usual, but this time Liverpool’s manager may not be so quick to sign off the paperwork.

Nixon reports that Iraola has “taken a shine” to McConnell and Koumas, noting that the pair, once routinely “farmed out for experience”, have come back from their travels with a different edge and are “now getting serious respect”. The suggestion is clear: they have returned from their time away from Anfield not just older, but ready.

For Liverpool’s academy, often praised but not always trusted at crunch moments, that is no small development. For McConnell and Koumas, it is an opening they have waited years to see.

Lessons in defeat

All of this comes against the backdrop of a 4-2 defeat to Leeds United in a pre-season friendly on Sunday, a match Iraola framed less as a setback and more as a hard, necessary lesson.

“I think we learn a lot of things,” he said afterwards. The scoreline was not what he wanted, but he called it “probably the most useful friendly we played – in a positive way in the first half and in a negative way in the second half.”

The contrast between those two halves, and the way the game slipped away, clearly stuck with him. “I think we’ve learned a lot from today and I think we can take good conclusions and solve some things,” he added. The tone was blunt: the issues are there, but so are the solutions.

The game also marked the first pre-season minutes for Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch, three players expected to shape Liverpool’s attacking identity under Iraola.

“I think they did really good,” he said. Each played 45 minutes, a gentle step into a long campaign. Wirtz and Isak featured in the first half, when Liverpool looked sharper and more fluid. “Obviously Florian and Alex, because they were playing in the first half, they had an easier game or a better game,” Iraola admitted.

Gravenberch, introduced after the break, walked into a very different contest. “Ryan, it was costly for him,” the manager said, acknowledging how the game turned and how exposed his side looked at times.

There was a brief scare when Jeremie Frimpong asked to come off, but Iraola played down fears of a serious problem. “Jeremie asked for the sub [but] I don’t think it’s an injury. It was just some overload and I hope he’s not injured in that way. I don’t think we’ve lost anyone.”

So the manager left with a defeat, a checklist of tactical repairs, and a clearer view of his squad’s physical state. He also left with a firmer conviction about two young players who, under a different manager, might already be packing their bags for another year away.

Pre-season often flatters, sometimes misleads. But if McConnell and Koumas keep forcing their way into Iraola’s plans, the real question is no longer where they will go on loan – it is how big a role they can carve out at Anfield when the serious football starts.