Liverpool Begins New Era Under Iraola in Nashville

In the heat of a Tennessee summer, Liverpool step into a new era.

Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool.

The first glimpse comes on Saturday in Nashville, where the Reds face Sunderland at Geodis Park, home of Nashville SC. Kick-off is 5pm local time, 11pm back in the UK, but the timing matters far less than the tone this team sets.

Before a ball is kicked, there will be a pause. Both sets of players will wear black armbands and a minute’s applause will honour Kevin Keegan, a giant of both clubs, whose death earlier this week cast a long shadow over this meeting. It is a poignant backdrop to a night that is supposed to be about beginnings.

Iraola steps into the glare

Iraola doesn’t get the luxury of a gentle introduction. He inherits a club that expects to compete, a fanbase that demands to feel something every time the team crosses the white line.

He knows it.

“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.”

He arrives from Bournemouth, a significant step up, and does so in the wake of Arne Slot’s departure. That only sharpens the scrutiny. Come the start of the Premier League, the table will judge him. For now, supporters will be studying the patterns, the press, the risk, the aggression.

Liverpool royalty will be watching too.

“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,” Ian Rush tells BBC Sport.

Rush has seen enough Liverpool sides to know what fits and what doesn’t.

“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 challenge for Iraola in the United States: not results, but identity.

A low-key stage, a loud message

Geodis Park holds around 30,000. There are still plenty of tickets left. For a club that normally turns pre-season into a travelling roadshow, it feels strangely subdued. Nashville is the Music City, yet there is little sense of a football carnival rolling into town.

Inside the Liverpool camp, though, the mood is different. Iraola has 32 players with him in America, a broad mix of senior figures, returnees and youngsters. Some are there primarily to continue their rehabilitation alongside the group rather than at a near-empty training ground back on Merseyside, but the head coach wants eyes on everyone.

The World Cup has scattered several of his key names. Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch will only join up for the second week of the tour. Alexis Mac Allister and Victor Munoz will arrive last of all. Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson will not travel.

That leaves a core that feels younger, fresher, and, by all accounts, hungry.

“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. Those players have had a long rest and they'll be desperate to get back into it,” Rush says.

Harvey Elliott is back in the group. Stefan Bajcetic, whose last appearance for the club came earlier in 2024, has rejoined full training. For Iraola, these are not footnotes; they are options in a squad that still needs surgery.

He will experiment. He has to.

Life after Salah

Behind the scenes, one issue dominates the recruitment conversation.

Liverpool knew by March, if not earlier, that Mohamed Salah was leaving. He has not been replaced yet. For a club built so much around his goals, his presence, his gravity on the right flank, that is a void you feel every time you sketch out a team sheet.

Liverpool want a winger. Bradley Barcola is currently the most likely candidate, but until anything is agreed, Iraola must work with what he has.

That includes 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha, who has been training across both flanks and offers flexibility on the right as well as in his preferred role on the left. His talent is not in doubt. His readiness to carry the load of replacing Salah is another matter entirely.

“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.”

The message is clear: the future might be bright, but the present still needs a proven wide threat.

Youth on show

One thing this tour will not lack is opportunity.

Over the next week, supporters can expect to see more of Kieran Morrison, 19, who made his debut last season, as well as 18-year-olds Will Wright and Josh Sonni-Lambie. All three have been name-checked inside the club as players to watch.

Then there is 16-year-old Josh Abe, widely regarded as one of the most exciting young prospects in English football. Nashville, New York, Chicago – these are big stages for teenagers, but Liverpool have never been afraid to throw talent into the light.

For Iraola, this is the balancing act. Build a side that looks like Liverpool, feels like Liverpool, presses like Liverpool – while bedding in youngsters, waiting on World Cup returnees and urging the club to move in the market.

The friendlies against Sunderland in Nashville, Wrexham in New York and Leeds in Chicago will not define his tenure. They will, though, offer the first real clues.

What does Iraola’s Liverpool sound like when it finally starts to sing?