Liverpool Prepare for Season Opener as Iraola Era Begins
Liverpool are walking into the new Premier League season with one eye on St James’ Park and the other glued to the transfer market.
Andoni Iraola’s first league game in charge comes on Sunday away to Newcastle, a fixture already loaded with subplots as Alexander Isak faces his former club. Around that, Liverpool are trying to rebuild an attack, reinforce a thin squad and replace a modern legend. All in the final week of the window.
Expectation around Iraola has been high since the day he walked through the doors at Anfield. Arne Slot’s second season delivered Champions League qualification but fell short of the title fight Liverpool crave. Iraola has been brought in to drag them back into that conversation. He knows he needs help from the recruitment department to do it.
Endrick turns Liverpool down
One name is already off the table.
Endrick, fresh from an eye-catching loan spell at Lyon, has decided to stay and fight for his place at Real Madrid rather than push for a move to Liverpool, according to ESPN. The 20-year-old Brazilian posted eight goals and eight assists in 21 appearances in France and returned to Spain hoping to break into a star-studded attack.
The timing has been brutal.
Yan Diomande’s big-money arrival has added another obstacle to a front line where Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe are effectively untouchable starters. That leaves Diomande as the favourite to take the remaining attacking berth on the right. Behind them sits Rodrygo, still in Jose Mourinho’s plans once he recovers from injury.
It is a crowded room. Endrick wants to stay in it.
Liverpool had identified him as a potentially smart fit for Iraola’s system – able to cover centrally for Isak and operate off the right, the very zone Mohamed Salah owned for so long. Salah’s abrupt departure this summer has left a gaping hole that still hasn’t been filled.
The refusal stings a little more given the wider context.
Liverpool have already seen a £50 million bid for Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh knocked back this week. They are expected to return with an improved offer, but time is ticking and the market is unforgiving when sellers know you are desperate for a right-sided forward.
Iraola: “We will definitely sign some players”
If there was any doubt about Liverpool’s intentions in the final days of the window, Iraola removed it.
The Spaniard has been blunt about the state of his squad, admitting it looks “thin” and insisting on Friday that there will “definitely” be new arrivals before the deadline on September 1.
One move is already in the bag. Ronald Araujo has arrived on loan from Barcelona to ease the blow of Joe Gomez’s pre-season injury. That solves one problem, but not all of them.
Right-back remains a concern with Conor Bradley struggling for fitness. The midfield has lost Curtis Jones to Inter Milan and still feels one body light. The picture is incomplete, and Iraola knows it.
“We will definitely sign some players. Some deals you have to wait until the end,” he told Sky Sports. “But the end is the important picture, the one we will have on September 1, because it is true that we are still quite thin.”
The message is clear: judge this Liverpool squad after the window closes, not before kick-off at Newcastle.
For many supporters, the priority is obvious. They want the next man on the right flank, the first serious heir to Salah. Rio Ngumoha is expected to see more minutes there, while Victor Munoz can flip to his weaker side if required, but those feel like internal patches rather than a grand solution.
So Liverpool head into Tyneside juggling two battles at once – points on Sunday, players by next Sunday.
By the time the dust settles on this opening week, we will know if Iraola has the tools to chase the title, or if this season becomes another exercise in chasing shadows.
