Andoni Iraola's Premier League Debut: Key Decisions for Liverpool
Andoni Iraola steps into the Premier League spotlight on Sunday, and there are few harsher introductions than a first day out at St James’ Park.
Liverpool’s new manager takes his team to Newcastle knowing the brief is brutally simple: erase the memory of last season’s fifth-place finish and convince supporters that a genuine title push is on the horizon. Trophies may not be demanded immediately, but clear progress is. With a thin squad and questions all over the pitch, he has no margin for error with his first team sheet.
Three calls, in particular, will shape his opening afternoon.
Araujo over Jacquet at centre-back
Jeremy Jacquet is the headline signing, the £60million defender brought in from Rennes after a deal agreed last year. On paper, this is the kind of occasion you buy a centre-back for. In reality, starting him here would be a gamble verging on reckless.
He hasn’t played a competitive minute since early February. He managed just 45 minutes in pre-season because of injury. Throwing him into the St James’ Park cauldron, against a Newcastle side that thrives on chaos and energy, would be asking for trouble as much as inspiration.
Iraola is short at centre-back with Joe Gomez injured, but he does have Ronald Araujo. The Barcelona loanee is hardly fully tuned up himself – he also played only a half in pre-season – yet his recent rhythm is far better. He was a regular until the end of last season and has seven years of experience dealing with hostile, high-stakes nights at the Nou Camp.
That matters here. Newcastle will look to turn the game into an emotional contest, feeding off the crowd. Araujo has lived that life. Jacquet hasn’t.
Starting the Frenchman would be bold. It wouldn’t necessarily be right. Araujo should anchor the defence from the first whistle.
Ngumoha deserves the right-wing role
If Iraola can afford caution at centre-back, he has nothing like that luxury on the right wing.
Rio Ngumoha is 17. Raw. Inexperienced. On another day, in another squad, he’d be eased in from the bench. But Liverpool’s options in that role are brutally limited, and this is one position where the risk comes with genuine upside.
Iraola could shove Victor Munoz out of position and ask the Osasuna signing to do a job wide on the right. It would be the safer call on paper. It wouldn’t be the braver or better one.
Ngumoha has earned this shot. He impressed consistently through pre-season, showing the kind of sharpness and directness that Liverpool’s attack badly needs. He already knows what it takes to decide this exact fixture: he scored the winner at St James’ Park last season, sliding the ball past Nick Pope in the 100th minute at the Leazes End.
That moment wasn’t an accident. It spoke of a teenager who doesn’t shrink in hostile surroundings.
With Alexander Isak returning to his former home and the atmosphere set to be even more charged, Liverpool will need players who can ride the noise, not hide from it. Ngumoha has shown he can handle that storm. He should start on the right.
Mac Allister the big midfield casualty
If there is one area where Iraola does have genuine depth, it’s central midfield.
Even with Curtis Jones expected to join Inter Milan, the new manager can still choose from Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Florian Wirtz, Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott, Trey Nyoni and Stefan Bajcetic. That is a lot of variety, a lot of profiles, and crucially, enough cover to make a big call.
That call should be to leave Mac Allister out.
The Argentine barely featured in pre-season, playing only 54 minutes after an extended rest following his World Cup exertions. Fitness alone would be enough reason to manage his minutes early on, but there is more to it than that.
Mac Allister laboured through large stretches of the 2025/26 campaign. Too often, Liverpool’s midfield looked unbalanced with him in it, short of dynamism and bite. Iraola has the chance, from day one, to reset that structure.
A trio of Szoboszlai, Gravenberch and Wirtz offers a different blend: energy, vertical running, creativity between the lines. It looks, on paper at least, like a midfield built for Iraola’s intensity and front-foot style.
St James’ Park is not the place to cling to reputations. It is the place to commit to a new idea.
If Iraola backs Araujo at the back, trusts Ngumoha on the right and reshapes his midfield without Mac Allister, he won’t just be picking a team for one game. He’ll be planting a flag for what this Liverpool side is going to be under him.
How quickly that vision takes hold may define their entire season.
