Andoni Iraola's Premier League Debut: Key Decisions for Liverpool

Andoni Iraola steps into the Premier League spotlight on Sunday, and there are far easier places to start than St James’ Park. Liverpool head to Newcastle United with a new man in the dugout, a thin squad, and expectations that remain as heavy as ever.

Last season’s fifth-place finish still lingers. The club wants a title tilt, of course it does, but Iraola’s first campaign is really about something more subtle: proof that this team is edging back towards major trophies, even if the rebuild is clearly incomplete. The transfer window has underlined that.

Jeremy Jacquet has arrived from Rennes for £60million as the headline signing, a deal wrapped up last year. Ronald Araujo and Victor Munoz have come in from Barcelona and Osasuna as squad options. It’s a start, not a transformation. The attack, in particular, still looks short on both depth and ruthless quality for a side that talks about competing on several fronts.

That makes Iraola’s first team sheet enormous. One wrong call in Tyneside’s noise and hostility, and he risks an opening-day setback that could sour the mood around Anfield before his reign has even found its rhythm.

Three decisions stand out.

Araujo over Jacquet at centre-back

Jacquet might be the marquee signing, but St James’ Park is no place for sentiment. Throwing him straight into a Premier League debut there would be a gamble bordering on reckless.

The 21-year-old hasn’t played competitive football since early February. Across the whole of pre-season, he managed just 45 minutes because of injury. That is not the preparation you want for a defender walking into a cauldron against a Newcastle side that thrives on chaos and aerial duels.

Iraola is short at centre-back with Joe Gomez injured, yet he does have Ronald Araujo. The Barcelona loanee also only clocked a half of football in pre-season, but his situation is very different. He played regularly until the end of last season and has seven years of experience in high-stakes fixtures at the Nou Camp. Hostile atmospheres are not a novelty for him; they are the norm.

Picking Jacquet from the start would be bold. It would not be logical. Araujo brings experience, positioning, and a cooler head for an opening day that will be frantic from the first whistle. Liverpool need stability at the back, not a baptism of fire for a young defender still trying to find his rhythm.

Ngumoha’s moment on the right

If centre-back demands caution, the right wing demands courage.

Rio Ngumoha is just 17. On paper, he carries the same red flags as Jacquet: inexperience, rawness, the risk of being swallowed by the occasion. In reality, Iraola’s options here are so limited that the teenager isn’t just a romantic pick – he’s the logical one.

Victor Munoz could be shunted out of position to cover the flank, but that would be a compromise on two fronts. Ngumoha, by contrast, has spent the summer making his case. He impressed throughout pre-season, showing enough sharpness and directness to force his name into the conversation.

He also knows this ground. He scored the winning goal in this exact fixture last season, sliding the ball past Nick Pope at the Leazes End in the 100th minute. That matters. He has already handled the noise, the time-wasting, the desperation of a game that refuses to die. He did not flinch then, and Liverpool will need that same fearlessness again, especially with Alexander Isak returning to his former home and cranking the volume up another notch.

Ngumoha is a risk. But it is the right kind of risk: a player with momentum, confidence, and a memory of delivering in this stadium when it mattered.

Mac Allister on the bench

Midfield is where Iraola actually has the luxury of choice. Curtis Jones is expected to leave for Inter Milan, but the depth in the middle of the park remains one of Liverpool’s strengths.

Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Florian Wirtz, Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott, Trey Nyoni, Stefan Bajcetic – it’s a crowded room. That gives Iraola room to be ruthless.

Mac Allister is the obvious candidate to miss out on Sunday. He played only 54 minutes in total during pre-season, having been handed an extended break after his World Cup exertions. He is behind the others physically, and his form last season does not demand automatic selection. Across large stretches of the 2025/26 campaign, he struggled to impose himself, and Liverpool’s midfield often looked unbalanced with him in it.

A trio of Szoboszlai, Gravenberch and Wirtz offers something different: legs, verticality, and a more natural blend of creativity and power. It feels like the kind of midfield Iraola can build around, not just tolerate. St James’ Park is not the venue to ease Mac Allister back in when there are sharper, more in-form options ready to go.

So the picture is clear. Araujo to anchor the defence. Ngumoha trusted to stretch Newcastle on the right. Mac Allister watching on as a new-look midfield stakes its claim.

For Iraola, this is not just an opening-day selection. It is a statement about whose future he believes this Liverpool side truly belongs to.