Liverpool Pre-Season: Key Issues for Andoni Iraola
Andoni Iraola’s first Liverpool pre-season is already ticking into gear in quiet, staggered fashion. A few early returnees, some testing, some running. The real work, though, starts next week, when the full group assembles before flying to the United States on July 20.
For a club still smarting from a flat, underwhelming campaign, this is not just another pre-season. It is a reset. And for Iraola, three issues stand out immediately.
1. Fast‑tracking Jeremy Jacquet
Jeremy Jacquet turns 21 on Monday. He arrives for £60m, off the back of shoulder surgery that cut short his season in February, and walks straight into the most scrutinised defence in English football.
There will be nerves. There always are. But Liverpool’s hierarchy do not spend that kind of money on a centre-back they think might shrink under the Anfield glare.
With Giovanni Leoni still working his way back from the ACL injury he suffered 10 months ago, the path is clear. Across the summer, Jacquet is likely to line up alongside Joe Gomez in the heart of defence, the first draft of a partnership designed to prepare him for the real thing: Virgil van Dijk and the Premier League.
His unveiling last week told its own story. Eager, sharp, leaning into the challenge rather than away from it. Pre-season friendlies might be officially meaningless, geared towards fitness and rhythm, but Jacquet’s performances will be watched like competitive fixtures. Every duel, every step out with the ball, every recovery run will be picked apart.
Iraola has walked this road before. At Bournemouth, he took Dean Huijsen, polished him, and helped turn him into a Spain international and then a £60m signing for Real Madrid. A young defender with talent, given a defined role and a demanding coach, can accelerate fast under the right guidance.
That precedent matters now. Jacquet is Liverpool’s only summer signing on the tour. All eyes will go to him by default. The task for Iraola is clear: get him physically right after surgery, embed him in the defensive structure, and ensure that by the time the league starts, the idea of him alongside Van Dijk feels natural, not experimental.
Pre-season can chew up young defenders if they look uncertain. Iraola’s job is to make sure Jacquet looks like he belongs.
2. Curtis Jones: stay, go, or reset?
Curtis Jones returns from holiday in Mallorca next week with more than just jet lag to shake off. His Liverpool future is hanging in the balance.
Inter have already tested the water twice. Their second offer, just under £22m, was quickly knocked back. Liverpool would only even start to think about a deal at around £35m, and the gap between those numbers has left some inside Anfield wondering if the talks are already drifting towards a dead end.
Right now, nothing is close. That leaves a window of opportunity – for both player and manager.
With Alexis Mac Allister still at the World Cup and Ryan Gravenberch on his break, there is a vacancy in midfield for the opening weeks of pre-season. A starting spot is there for Jones if he wants to grab it, a chance to show Iraola he can be more than a rotational option.
Jones is Liverpool born and raised, a product of the Academy, and in an ideal world he would not walk away from his boyhood club. But the modern game is ruthless. Inter and Aston Villa have both sensed that his limited game-time could tempt him towards a new challenge.
This is where pre-season stops being just fitness work and becomes something more political. Iraola needs clarity. Is Jones ready to commit to a fresh chapter under a new head coach, or is he already half-looking elsewhere?
Those conversations at the AXA Training Centre in the coming days will be pivotal. If Jones impresses on tour and signals he is fully in, the shirt is there for him in the early Premier League weeks, especially while Mac Allister is away. If he hesitates, the club’s stance on that £35m line in the sand could harden.
For Jones, this is not just another summer. It is a career crossroads.
3. Rio Ngumoha and the right‑wing question
Liverpool’s recruitment drive this summer has a clear theme: wide forwards. They have triggered the £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 adds another name to the mix.
The pattern is obvious. All three are versatile but lean naturally towards the left.
At the same time, Liverpool are living in the shadow of the biggest question in their attack: what comes after Mohamed Salah on the right? Spending huge money on a left-sided forward and then asking him to learn a new role on the opposite flank does not sit comfortably with everyone at the club.
So another idea has started to gather pace internally: Rio Ngumoha as a right-sided attacker.
Ngumoha’s rise over the past year has been explosive. Last summer he forced his way into the first-team picture, then in late August, just days before his 17th birthday, he scored his first Premier League goal in that breathless 3-2 win at Newcastle United. From promising kid to decisive top-flight contributor in a matter of weeks.
He ended the season not just as a Liverpool starter but as an England international, narrowly missing out on a World Cup place despite a player-of-the-match display against New Zealand in the United States last month. That kind of trajectory turns heads. It also forces decisions.
Liverpool intend to reward that progress. A new contract will be discussed when he turns 18 in late August, and they are fully aware that Bayern Munich have been tracking the situation. Letting him slip away is simply not on the agenda at Anfield.
His England cameo in America came on the right, and that has fed into a broader debate at the club. Modern football has largely embraced inverted wingers, wide forwards cutting in on to their stronger foot. But there is a temptation to go the other way with Ngumoha: use him as a more traditional wideman, hugging the touchline, going on the outside, and whipping dangerous deliveries into the box.
That is not a small tactical tweak. It goes to the heart of how Liverpool want to service Alexander Isak. They paid £125m for the Sweden striker and still need to find a way to consistently feed him high-quality chances. A right-sided Ngumoha, stretching the pitch and providing early, accurate crosses, could be one answer.
Of course, he is still raw. Compared to targets like Barcola, Ngumoha has limited senior experience. That might actually work in Iraola’s favour. A teenager at the fledgling stage of his career is easier to mould into a specific role than a fully formed international star with entrenched habits.
Where he lines up on this tour will be telling. Left, right, or rotated across both? Iraola built a reputation at Bournemouth for improving young forwards – Eli Junior Kroupi, Rayan, Antoine Semenyo – by giving them defined roles and the confidence to attack defenders relentlessly.
Now he inherits a teenager many inside Liverpool believe could become one of the most exciting wide players in Europe. The temptation to shift him permanently to the right and build a new pattern of attack around him will be hard to resist.
Pre-season will not decide Liverpool’s season on its own. But for Jacquet, Jones and Ngumoha, these next few weeks could shape their careers – and tell everyone exactly what kind of Liverpool Iraola intends to build.
