Iraola's Early Impressions of McConnell and Koumas at Liverpool
Andoni Iraola has barely had time to hang his jacket at Liverpool, but two names are already forcing their way into his thoughts: James McConnell and Lewis Koumas.
The Spaniard has walked into a dressing room packed with established internationals and big-money signings, yet it is a pair of academy products – players his predecessor barely trusted – who are starting to change the conversation.
From loan afterthoughts to serious contenders
McConnell is 21, a neat, progressive midfielder who has already tasted first-team football 13 times for Liverpool. Arne Slot’s verdict on him was clear enough: not ready to play every week. The Dutchman sent him to Ajax on loan in the summer of 2025, a move designed to harden his game away from Anfield’s spotlight.
Koumas, 20, has had an even tougher route. Capable of operating wide or through the middle, the Wales international has managed just a single senior appearance for Liverpool. His development has been scattered across loans at Stoke City, Birmingham City and Hull City, with mixed returns and no real hint that a path to the Liverpool XI was opening up.
Slot never used him once during his time in charge. McConnell featured only four times under the former boss. For both players, Liverpool felt more like a parent club on paper than a genuine opportunity.
That picture is changing quickly.
According to journalist Alan Nixon, Iraola has been “blown away” by the pair in his first days at the club and is seriously considering promoting them into his core first-team group next season. The interest from other clubs is there – more loans are on the table – but for the first time, Liverpool’s manager might be the one saying no.
Nixon reports that Iraola has “taken a shine” to the duo, impressed by how much they have “come on since their time away from Anfield” and noting that they are now commanding “serious respect” inside the camp. For two players previously farmed out for “experience with varying degrees of success”, that shift in status is significant.
The message is simple: they are no longer just names on a loan list. They are options.
Lessons in defeat
All of this comes against the backdrop of a 4-2 defeat to Leeds United in a pre-season friendly on Sunday, a match Iraola described as his most instructive so far.
“I think we learn a lot of things,” he said afterwards. It was not the kind of line managers usually reach for after conceding four, but there was no attempt to gloss over it.
“Obviously it’s not the result you want,” he admitted, before calling it “probably the most useful friendly we played – in a positive way in the first half and in a negative way in the second half.”
Liverpool showed both sides of themselves in one afternoon: the control and quality Iraola wants to build on, and the fragility he knows he must fix. “I think we’ve learned a lot from today and I think we can take good conclusions and solve some things,” he added, sounding more like a coach in mid-construction than a man panicking over a summer scoreline.
The game also marked the first pre-season outings for Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch – three players central to the new Liverpool project.
“I think they did really good,” Iraola said. They each played 45 minutes, with Wirtz and Isak benefitting from a brighter first-half display. “Obviously Florian and Alex, because they were playing in the first half, they had an easier game or a better game,” he noted.
Gravenberch, thrown into the more chaotic second period, found it “costly”, as Iraola put it, a nod to the increased difficulty rather than a criticism of the Dutchman himself. Jeremie Frimpong asked to come off as well, but the manager moved quickly to calm any fears.
“I don’t think it’s an injury,” he said. “It was just some overload and I hope he’s not injured in that way. I don’t think we’ve lost anyone.”
A new hierarchy taking shape
Pre-season is often dismissed as noise, but for players on the fringes, these weeks can define careers. McConnell and Koumas know it. Iraola clearly does too.
He has inherited a squad shaped by someone else’s judgment. Slot looked at the same two youngsters and saw players better served elsewhere. Iraola, on early evidence, sees tools he can use now.
Liverpool’s summer has already carried the usual big-club storylines: marquee names like Wirtz and Isak bedding in, Gravenberch trying to reset his trajectory, fitness concerns monitored daily. Yet inside the training ground, where reputations matter less than what a manager sees with his own eyes, two academy graduates are forcing their way into the plan.
If Iraola follows through and embeds McConnell and Koumas in his first-team squad, the next phase of Liverpool’s season will not just be about how quickly the stars click. It will be about whether two players once seen as loan material can turn a manager’s early admiration into something far more permanent.
