Iraola's Liverpool Era Begins in Chicago
Robert Lewandowski was still on the pitch when Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool era truly began.
As the Polish striker wrapped up Chicago Fire’s session at their performance centre, he stepped up to a penalty and thrashed it over the bar into the grey Midwestern sky. Behind him, Liverpool’s players were already filtering onto the turf, boots squeaking, voices rising, a new regime quietly taking shape in the Windy City.
It was a striking image. One great career winding down in MLS, another major Premier League story just beginning.
Szoboszlai, Jones and a storm in a social-media teacup
Earlier in the week, Liverpool’s pre-season had briefly been hijacked by a clip from the win over Wrexham in New York. Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones, with Kostas Tsimikas nearby, were seen in a heated exchange at full-time. Jones, linked with Inter Milan, did not look amused. The flashpoint, it later emerged, centred on Szoboszlai handing the captain’s armband to Tsimikas instead of Jones.
In 2024, nothing stays on the pitch. A few seconds of tension, filmed from the stands, suddenly became a talking point.
Szoboszlai moved quickly to defuse it on Thursday, insisting the players were “in the same boat” and united in wanting the best for the club and each other. Twenty-four hours later in Chicago, the pictures matched the words.
The trio strolled out together for training, laughing, juggling the ball between them, deliberately right in front of the cameras. Keepy-uppies, a few jokes, big smiles. Whatever had been said in New York, it stayed there.
A bit of edge is hardly unusual in an elite dressing room. But this episode doubled as a sharp reminder for Iraola: Liverpool still lack a designated vice-captain after Andy Robertson’s departure. The vacuum matters. The new head coach will have to put a name to that role soon, not just for symbolism but to avoid exactly this sort of confusion.
Key men back, key doubts linger
On the football side, there was more positive news. Record signing Alexander Isak rejoined full training this week, a significant boost as Iraola tries to imprint his ideas before the Premier League opener.
Isak, Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch all missed the trip to New York, where Liverpool edged Wrexham 1-0 in their second pre-season outing. In Chicago, they were back in the thick of things and are expected to feature against Leeds on Sunday at Soldier Field.
Not everyone made it onto the grass. Highly rated centre-back Jeremy Jacquet sat out the main session, working in the gym as Liverpool carefully manage his recovery from the shoulder injury he suffered in February. Iraola had suggested earlier in the week that Jacquet would play this weekend; now, he looks a doubt.
Joe Gomez, already ruled out for the start of the league campaign, was also confined to indoor work. His absence underlines why Liverpool are treating Jacquet cautiously. Iraola’s defensive resources will be tested early if setbacks mount.
Iraola’s imprint: sharp drills, sharper demands
Once the warm-up cones were cleared away, the tone of the session changed quickly. Iraola stepped in, voice cutting through the Chicago drizzle. This was not a gentle jog-through for cameras and sponsors.
He drove the tempo, barking instructions, demanding “play in possession” and urging “quicker, quicker” as players zipped passes across the slick surface. The message was clear: speed of thought, speed of ball, no hiding.
Mini-games sparked bursts of celebration with every goal, players high-fiving and shouting as if it were a competitive fixture. The mood stayed light, but there was no mistaking the edge. Iraola frequently halted play to correct positions or speak directly to individuals, sometimes gesturing them a few yards one way or another, sometimes stopping to explain a movement.
This was a coach in the thick of it, not a distant observer.
Midway through, the squad split. One group moved to a smaller pitch for a nine-a-side game, the kind of tight-space contest that exposes touch, awareness and fitness in an instant. The other group peeled off to work on set-pieces with assistants Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper.
Wirtz took charge of corners, whipping deliveries in as Elphick, bib on, threw himself into the drills as an extra body. It was functional work, but also a quiet nod to where Iraola sees marginal gains: dead balls, details, repetition.
Watching from the sidelines was Mike Gordon, Fenway Sports Group’s president and the man once again overseeing Liverpool’s operations. His presence in Chicago, and expected attendance at Soldier Field on Sunday, underlines how closely the ownership is tracking the early days of this new project.
A new man, old legends and the weight of history
The work on the grass is only part of Iraola’s early job. The other part is less visible but just as important: understanding the scale of the club he now leads.
On Thursday night, Liverpool held a team dinner. Afterwards, Iraola shared a beer with Phil Thompson and Robbie Fowler, two men who know exactly what success at Anfield looks and feels like.
Thompson, a three-time European Cup winner with Liverpool, later said they spoke about all sorts: the coming season, their families, the wider life that swirls around football. It was a simple scene, but a telling one.
When Thompson lifted his third European Cup, Iraola had not yet been born. Now, decades on, the Spaniard sits across from him as Liverpool’s head coach, listening, talking, absorbing. He does not need to imitate the past, but he does need to respect it. Chicago offered an early glimpse that he understands the weight those old medals still carry.
Seeds in the Windy City
Three weeks remain before Iraola walks out for his first Premier League game as Liverpool manager. That is not a long runway, especially for a coach trying to reshape a side that has already lived through one seismic era.
Yet in this corner of Chicago, with Lewandowski’s wayward penalty fading into the background and the red shirts of Liverpool filling the pitch, the first outlines of Iraola’s Liverpool were visible: high intensity, clear demands, no time wasted, no space for passengers.
The arguments have been parked, the roles still to be defined, the hierarchy not yet fully set. But the work has started, in earnest, far from Anfield.
The question now is simple: how quickly will these seeds, planted in the Windy City, grow into something that can withstand the storm of a Premier League season?
