Milos Kerkez Faces Early Challenges at Liverpool
Milos Kerkez felt the heat from every direction at St James’ Park.
On the touchline, Andoni Iraola raged. Behind him, Virgil van Dijk barked instructions that turned into open rebukes. Out on the pitch, Anthony Elanga simply ran away from him.
For Liverpool’s new first-choice left-back, this 2-2 draw with Newcastle was a bruising early-season reality check.
Harsh lessons on Tyneside
Kerkez has stepped into a big role since Andy Robertson’s move to Tottenham Hotspur, but Newcastle went after him from the opening whistle.
Within the first five minutes, Elanga burned past the Hungarian down Liverpool’s left and helped carve out the Magpies’ opener. It set the tone. Kerkez never quite recovered his composure or rhythm, and his afternoon quickly became a battle against both his direct opponent and his own standards.
According to Liverpool Echo reporter Ian Doyle, one first-half sequence summed up Iraola’s frustration. Kerkez, slow to react, “took an eternity” to close down Elanga, eventually conceding a corner. On the sideline, Iraola “struggled to keep his emotions in check”, gesturing furiously as his full-back jogged back into position. The Basque coach, Doyle noted, was “not a happy camper – at all”.
The pressure didn’t just come from the dugout.
Later in the game, another Newcastle break developed down Kerkez’s flank. Again, the 22-year-old was too hesitant in engaging his man. Van Dijk, reading the danger, tore across from the centre to shut it down himself. The captain’s intervention was followed by a clear, animated dressing-down for Liverpool’s number 6. No ambiguity. Do better. Do it quicker.
Numbers offer a softer verdict
Top-level football is full of flashpoints between players and coaches. Angry words fly, then vanish with the final whistle. But for Kerkez, these weren’t isolated flare-ups. They framed a performance that never quite convinced.
Defensively, the lapses stood out. He was exposed for pace, slow to close space and unsure in one-v-one moments. When he did advance into the final third, the execution deserted him, with a couple of promising attacking situations fizzling out at his feet.
The underlying data tells a slightly kinder story. As logged by Sofascore, Kerkez still put up some solid raw numbers:
- Duels won: 6
- Defensive contributions: 7
- Tackles: 3
- Shots on target: 1
- Key passes: 1
Those figures point to effort and involvement, not a player hiding. He worked, he tackled, he tried to affect the game. But they also underline the gap between activity and authority. For a Liverpool left-back, competence is the baseline. The demand is control.
Kerkez, more than anyone, will know this wasn’t close to his ceiling.
Response time at Anfield
The schedule offers no time for sulking. Nottingham Forest visit Anfield next Saturday, and Iraola will expect a very different version of his young defender.
Kerkez is likely to square up against Ola Aina in Oliver Glasner’s wing-back system, a test of his positional sense as much as his pace. Forest will look to drag him into wide duels, to probe any uncertainty left over from Tyneside.
This was not the commanding start to the campaign the Hungary international wanted. But Liverpool did not anoint him Robertson’s successor on the back of one afternoon in August. His place in the XI is there to be owned, not gifted.
The question now is simple: does Kerkez turn a chastening day, and the sharp words from Iraola and Van Dijk, into the moment his Liverpool career truly hardens?
