Andoni Iraola's Liverpool: Three Key Decisions Before US Tour
The new era at Liverpool has already started in drips and drabs. A few early arrivals at the AXA Training Centre, a few fitness tests, a few handshakes with the new man in charge.
The real work starts next week.
By Tuesday, July 14, Andoni Iraola will finally have his full pre-season group together before Liverpool fly to the United States on July 20. For a squad still stinging from a flat, disappointing campaign, this summer is not a gentle reset. It is a hard reboot.
And there are three issues the new head coach cannot afford to let drift.
1. Fast‑track Jeremy Jacquet
Jeremy Jacquet turns 21 on Monday. He arrives for £60m, fresh from shoulder surgery, and with a season cut short in February still echoing in his body. It is a lot for a young defender to carry into a new dressing room.
Liverpool’s hierarchy signed off that fee because they believe he can live with that weight. Now Iraola has to prove them right.
With Giovanni Leoni still working his way back from the ACL injury that sidelined him 10 months ago, Jacquet is likely to spend much of the summer alongside Joe Gomez at centre-back. These are only pre-season games, non-competitive and fitness-led, but for a new signing walking into a club of Liverpool’s size, there is no such thing as a quiet debut tour.
You could see it in his unveiling last week: Jacquet is desperate to impress. The Frenchman’s summer will be one of the running storylines of pre-season, his every touch and tackle measured against the standard required to stand next to Virgil van Dijk when the Premier League begins.
Iraola has walked this path before. At Bournemouth, he dragged elite-level performances out of Dean Huijsen, helping turn him into a Spain international and, ultimately, a £60m defender for Real Madrid. That is the template now being quietly pinned to the wall at Kirkby. Take a young centre-back with huge upside and sharpen him quickly.
As Liverpool’s only confirmed summer signing on the tour, Jacquet will be under the brightest spotlight. The task for Iraola is clear: build his fitness, harden his mentality, and accelerate his understanding of Liverpool’s defensive demands so that, when the serious games arrive, Van Dijk is not looking at a project, but a partner.
2. Curtis Jones: stay, go, or start again?
Curtis Jones returns from holiday in Mallorca next week with more than just a tan to show for his summer. His Liverpool future hangs in the balance.
Inter have already tested the water twice. Their second bid, lodged last month, fell short of £22m and was swiftly turned away. Liverpool, reluctant sellers at best, are thought to be open to talks only if the offers start closer to £35m. The gap between those numbers is not small, and some inside Anfield wonder if this particular transfer story has already run out of road.
That standstill gives Iraola an opportunity.
With Alexis Mac Allister still at the World Cup and Ryan Gravenberch on his own break, there is a vacancy in midfield for the early weeks of pre-season. For a city-centre-born Academy graduate who grew up with the club, that is not just a chance. It is a lifeline.
In an ideal world, Jones would not leave Liverpool at all. Yet the reality of last season – reduced minutes, stalled momentum – has encouraged clubs like Inter and Aston Villa to circle. They sense that a door might be ajar.
Iraola’s job is to find out how wide.
If Jones buys into the new project, he has a clear route to a starting shirt, at least while Mac Allister is away. A strong tour in the United States could re-establish him not just as a squad option, but as a central piece of the new midfield puzzle.
To get there, though, the head coach needs more than good performances. He needs clarity. Jones must decide whether he wants a fresh start at Liverpool or a clean break somewhere else. Those conversations – honest, direct, and probably uncomfortable – will go a long way to deciding whether he lines up for Iraola in the Premier League or becomes a headline departure of the summer.
3. Rio Ngumoha and the right‑wing question
Liverpool’s recruitment drive this summer has been aimed heavily at the flanks. The club have triggered a £34.5m release clause in Victor Munoz’s Osasuna contract and told RB Leipzig they would be prepared to go to £86m for Yan Diomande. Interest in Bradley Barcola at Paris Saint-Germain remains alive.
Look closely at that list and a pattern appears. Munoz, Diomande, Barcola: all comfortable across the front line, all naturally drawn to the left.
At the same time, Liverpool are edging towards a problem that has been coming for years: life after Mohamed Salah on the right of the front three. Throwing huge money at a left-sided forward and then asking him to relearn the game from the opposite flank is not an idea everyone at Anfield finds appealing.
So another idea has crept into the discussion. Rio Ngumoha, on the right.
The teenager’s rise over the last 12 months has been dramatic. He lit up last summer’s preparations, vaulted himself into the first-team picture, and then marked the end of August by scoring his first Premier League goal in that wild 3-2 win at Newcastle United, just days before his 17th birthday.
By the time the season closed, Ngumoha was not just a prospect. He was a Liverpool starter and a full England international, missing out on the World Cup only by the narrowest of margins after a player-of-the-match display against New Zealand in the United States last month.
Those performances have hardened Liverpool’s stance. Bayern Munich have been watching closely, but the club have no intention of letting him slip away. A new contract will be on the table when he turns 18 in late August.
The tactical question now is where to play him.
Ngumoha’s England cameo in America came from the right, and while the modern trend is for inverted wingers cutting in on their stronger foot, Liverpool are exploring a different option: using him as an old-fashioned wide man, staying high and wide, beating his full-back on the outside and whipping balls into the box.
Given his limited senior experience compared with targets like Barcola, Ngumoha is still malleable. Iraola may decide that this is the perfect moment to shape him into a different kind of winger, one tailored to the needs of a squad that must find better service for £125m striker Alexander Isak.
Liverpool need to unlock Isak, to feed him more and better chances in high-value areas. A right-sided Ngumoha, stretching the pitch and delivering from the byline, could be one of the keys.
Iraola’s track record with young forwards backs that idea. At Bournemouth, he elevated the likes of Eli Junior Kroupi, Rayan and Antoine Semenyo, refining their movement, sharpening their decision-making, and turning raw potential into real output.
Now he inherits Ngumoha at the very start of a career that already feels like it is racing ahead of schedule. Where he lines up this summer – left, right, or somewhere in between – will tell us plenty about how Iraola intends to build his attack, and how quickly Liverpool can turn promise into points.
