Liverpool's New Era Begins: Iraola's First Match in Nashville
In the heat of a Nashville summer, Liverpool step into the unknown.
Andoni Iraola takes charge of the Reds for the first time on Saturday when they face Sunderland at Geodis Park, home of MLS side Nashville SC. Kick-off is 5pm local time (11pm BST), the first glimpse of what this new era might look like in red.
It will begin with a pause. After the death of Kevin Keegan earlier this week, both sets of players will wear black armbands and a minute’s applause will sound around the 30,000-seat arena. A club icon remembered, a new chapter starting.
Iraola steps into the spotlight
Iraola has not needed telling what awaits him. Following the departure of Arne Slot, the scrutiny at Liverpool will be immediate and unforgiving. He has spoken plainly about the job in front of him.
"For me, now, it is about creating a very good team to beat, a very difficult team to beat," he said. "The team that I envision now - that I see and think of - if we become that team, I think we are going to be successful.
"The most important thing that we can deliver is our performances. It doesn't matter if I speak well, if I don't speak well, if I say the right things or if I don't say the right things. At the end people just want to see the team play well and deliver good results. I know this is 90% of my job."
Pre-season is usually about fitness and rhythm. For Iraola, it is also about identity. The results will count when the Premier League starts. For now, supporters want to see how this Liverpool side will play.
Ian Rush, who knows a thing or two about what the Anfield crowd demands, believes the club have picked the right man.
"It's a big step up from Bournemouth but he deserves it. He's got all the credentials to be a top Liverpool manager and I'm pretty certain he could be," he tells BBC Sport.
"His style of football fits with Liverpool. It will help with the supporters too. Perhaps with Slot, they were a bit more defensive but supporters want to get behind the team. They'll only get behind a team if you're attacking or high pressing. The atmosphere was subdued at stages last season. This is Liverpool and we want to play a high pressing game and we'll know in the next few days what that looks like."
That is the bar. Relentless, aggressive, front-foot football. Nashville is the first test of whether Iraola can bring it.
A quiet arrival, a loud opportunity
There are still plenty of tickets left for Saturday’s game. For a club of Liverpool’s global reach, it is striking how little the city seems to have changed gear. No sea of red downtown, no sense that a European giant has rolled into town.
Inside the camp, the mood is very different. Iraola has 32 players with him in the United States, a sizeable group that includes senior figures, youngsters and a handful who have travelled primarily to continue their rehabilitation within the squad rather than back at a near-empty training ground.
The World Cup has stretched the summer, so some of the biggest names are yet to appear. Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch are due to join for the second week of the camp. Alexis Mac Allister and Victor Munoz will be the last to report. Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson will not travel at all.
Those who have been there from the start talk of a youthful, energetic atmosphere. Players such as Dominik Szoboszlai and Milos Kerkez, who did not go to the World Cup, arrive refreshed.
"Szoboszlai and Kerkez haven't been to the World Cup and I can tell you this from experience because I never went to the World Cup," says Rush. "Those players have had a long rest and they'll be desperate to get back into it."
Harvey Elliott is back in the group. Stefan Bajcetic, whose last appearance for the club came in 2024, has rejoined full team training, a significant step for a Spanish midfielder many at Liverpool rate highly.
Iraola wants to see everything up close. Systems, partnerships, attitudes. Even so, nobody inside the club is pretending this squad is complete.
Life after Salah
The most obvious gap sits on the right of the front line.
Liverpool knew in March, if not earlier, that Mohamed Salah would be leaving. He has not been replaced yet. For a team that has built so much of its threat, aura and identity around the Egyptian, that is a glaring issue.
The plan is clear enough: Liverpool want a winger. Bradley Barcola is the name that currently feels closest to the mark, though nothing is done. Until then, Iraola is looking to the academy and the fringes.
Seventeen-year-old Rio Ngumoha has been working across both flanks in training, comfortable on either side despite favouring the left. His versatility gives Iraola an immediate option on the right, even if nobody is pretending he can simply be dropped into Salah’s role.
There is no doubt inside the club about Ngumoha’s talent. The expectation, though, is that Liverpool will still move in the market for a wide player before the Premier League kicks off.
"He's still young but as the manager has said, we need someone to replace Salah and that won't be easy at all," says Rush. "We've got Isak, who played well in the World Cup, and I hope he comes back as a new player and looking to prove a thing or two after last season."
Isak’s arrival for the second week of the tour will be watched closely. A strong World Cup has raised expectations. Iraola needs goals, variety and a new focal point in attack. The Swede has the profile to provide it; now he has to show it in a Liverpool shirt.
Kids on the big stage
Nashville is not just about Iraola’s first team. It is also a stage for the next wave.
Across the coming days in the United States, supporters can expect to see more of Kieran Morrison, 19, who made his debut last season. Will Wright, 18, and Josh Sonni-Lambie, also 18, are likely to feature too.
Then there is Josh Abe. At 16, he is already spoken of as one of the hottest young prospects in English football. Pre-season tours have a habit of throwing up a new name, a new face that suddenly feels part of the conversation. Abe is firmly on that shortlist.
For Iraola, that blend of experience and youth is crucial. He needs senior players to buy into his methods quickly. He also needs to know which teenagers can handle the step up, who might save the club millions in the market or change the shape of his squad planning.
Liverpool’s tour of the USA, with Sunderland in Nashville, Wrexham in New York and Leeds in Chicago, will not decide their season. It will, though, reveal plenty.
How will Iraola’s Liverpool press? Who fills the Salah void? Which youngster grabs the moment?
The answers start to arrive under the Tennessee floodlights.
