Iraola's Premier League Debut: Liverpool vs Newcastle Preview
Andoni Iraola steps into the Premier League spotlight on Sunday with one of the most unforgiving opening acts imaginable: a first game as Liverpool manager at St James’ Park.
No easing-in period. No gentle home curtain-raiser. Just Newcastle United, a hostile Tyneside crowd and a Liverpool squad that already looks stretched before a ball has been kicked.
The mission for the season is clear enough. Liverpool want to shove last year’s fifth-place finish into the background and rejoin the title conversation. But the reality of Iraola’s first campaign is harsher: show progress, build a framework, and do it with a thin group that still looks short in key areas.
Jeremy Jacquet’s £60million arrival from Rennes was wrapped up last year and billed as the marquee signing of the summer. Ronald Araujo and Victor Munoz have come in from Barcelona and Osasuna to pad out the squad. It’s not nearly enough to transform the attack or the depth. That work is still ahead of them.
For now, Iraola has a different problem. He cannot afford to start with a flat note. A poor result at Newcastle would drag a cloud over Anfield before the season has even found its rhythm. His first team sheet, then, carries weight.
Three calls stand out.
Araujo over Jacquet at centre-back
Jacquet is the big-money signing. He is also the wrong man to throw into this particular fire.
Handing a Premier League debut to a 20-year-old centre-back in the St James’ Park cauldron would be bold on paper and reckless in practice. Jacquet has not played a competitive minute since early February. His pre-season amounted to just 45 minutes because of injury. That is not a platform for a high-intensity away game against a physically aggressive Newcastle side.
Iraola is short at centre-back with Joe Gomez injured, but he does have Ronald Araujo. The Barcelona loanee is not fully up to speed either, having managed only half a game in pre-season, yet his situation is different. He played regularly until the end of last season and has seven years of experience at the Nou Camp behind him, with all the pressure, scrutiny and hostility that comes with it.
He knows what it is to walk into a big stadium and not blink.
Starting Jacquet would be a statement. Starting Araujo would be sense.
Ngumoha’s moment on the right
If centre-back is about caution, the right wing is about trust.
Rio Ngumoha is 17, raw and inexperienced. On paper, the same red flags that apply to Jacquet are there. But on the right flank, Iraola’s options are so limited that the equation changes.
He could shunt Victor Munoz out of position and ask him to do a job wide on the right. He could lean on experience over spark. Yet Ngumoha has earned something more than a token look. He impressed throughout pre-season, showing enough quality and personality to force his way into the conversation.
There is also history here. The teenager scored the winner in this very fixture last season, sliding the ball past Nick Pope at the Leazes End in the 100th minute. That is not just a nice story; it is evidence that he can deliver when the temperature rises.
With Alexander Isak returning to his former home and the atmosphere guaranteed to be fierce, Liverpool will need players who don’t shrink. Ngumoha has already shown he can embrace that chaos, not be swallowed by it.
On the right, the risk is real. But so is the reward. And unlike at centre-back, Iraola doesn’t truly have a like-for-like alternative.
Mac Allister the odd man out
If there is one area where Iraola can afford to be ruthless, it is midfield.
Curtis Jones is expected to join Inter Milan, but even without him, the options are stacked: Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Florian Wirtz, Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott, Trey Nyoni, Stefan Bajcetic. That is enough variety to shape the middle of the pitch in several different ways.
The first big call in that department should be to leave Mac Allister out at St James’ Park.
The reasoning is both physical and tactical. The Argentine managed only 54 minutes of pre-season after an extended break following his World Cup exploits. He is not at full rhythm. More importantly, his form across large stretches of the 2025/26 campaign never truly convinced. He cannot be treated as an automatic starter on reputation alone.
A trio of Szoboszlai, Gravenberch and Wirtz offers a cleaner balance for what Iraola wants: energy, vertical running, creativity between the lines and enough control to resist Newcastle’s surges. It is a midfield that can press, carry and hurt teams in transition.
Leaving out a World Cup winner on day one is not a small decision for a new manager. But this is precisely the kind of call that defines an early tenure: pick the system, back the players who fit it, and live with the noise.
On Sunday, in the noise of St James’ Park, we will start to see who Iraola truly trusts — and whether this thin Liverpool squad can punch above its weight from the very first whistle.
