Liverpool's New Era Under Iraola Begins
Robert Lewandowski was the first thing you saw. Not Andoni Iraola. Not Liverpool red.
On a grey Chicago morning at the Chicago Fire performance centre, the 37-year-old was still out on the far pitch, thudding penalties into the net as Liverpool’s first open session under their new head coach began. One effort flew high and over the bar, disappearing into the clouds. Symbolically or not, the old heavyweight faded into the background as Iraola’s era quietly clicked into gear.
Szoboszlai, Jones and a storm in a teacup
If there was any lingering tension from midweek, it did not show.
Earlier in the week, footage from the win over Wrexham had done the rounds on social media: Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in a heated exchange, Kostas Tsimikas nearby, the clip cut and shared and replayed. Jones has been linked with Inter Milan, which only added fuel. The flashpoint, it emerged, centred on Szoboszlai handing the captain’s armband to Tsimikas instead of Jones.
By Friday, the scene looked very different.
Szoboszlai, Jones and Tsimikas walked out together, laughing, juggling the ball between them, deliberately right in front of the cameras. Keepy-uppies, a few jokes, broad smiles. If there was a message, it was simple: this is done.
Szoboszlai had already played it down on Thursday, saying everyone was “in the same boat” and pushing for the same thing. The pictures from Chicago backed that up. Passion, yes. Fracture, no.
For Iraola, though, the episode was a sharp early reminder. With Andy Robertson gone and the vice-captaincy vacant, Liverpool need a clear hierarchy. In the modern game, where every angle from inside a stadium can be captured and clipped, some arguments are better kept for the dressing room. The new head coach cannot control every camera, but he can control who wears the armband.
Isak back, Wirtz and Gravenberch ready
The football itself offered more encouraging signs.
Record signing Alexander Isak rejoined training this week, a welcome sight after missing the trip to New York. He was not alone. Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch, also absent from the 1-0 win over Wrexham, trained and are expected to feature against Leeds at Soldier Field on Sunday.
Not everyone made it onto the grass. Jeremy Jacquet sat this one out, confined to gym work as Liverpool manage his return from the shoulder injury he suffered in February. Iraola had suggested earlier in the week that the centre-back would be involved at the weekend; now he is a doubt.
Joe Gomez, already ruled out for the start of the Premier League season, also worked indoors, another reminder that Iraola will not have a full deck to play with when the real stuff starts.
Iraola’s voice, Iraola’s tempo
Once the warm-up ended, the session changed gear. Quickly.
Iraola does not coach from a distance. He was in the thick of it, barking instructions, constantly on the move. “Play in possession.” “Quicker, quicker.” The phrases cut through the Chicago air, over and over, as he drove the tempo up.
The drills were sharp and competitive. Small-sided games sparked celebrations whenever a goal went in, players high-fiving and shouting, the mood more like a group that has been together for months than one still adjusting to a new boss. Iraola stepped in frequently, stopping play to adjust a position, correct a run, or demand a different angle of pass.
Then came the split.
One group peeled off to a smaller pitch for a nine-a-side match, the kind of condensed game that exposes any lack of sharpness. The other stayed back to work on set-pieces with assistants Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper. Wirtz took corner duty, whipping balls in as Elphick, bib on, joined the action himself. No spectators here; everyone worked.
Watching quietly from the sidelines was Mike Gordon, Fenway Sports Group’s president, back overseeing Liverpool’s operations. His presence in Chicago underlined the significance of this pre-season stretch. He is expected at Soldier Field on Sunday as well, eyes fixed on how quickly Iraola’s ideas take hold.
Old legends, new guard
The work did not stop with the final whistle of training.
On Thursday night, the squad gathered for a team dinner. It ended with Iraola sharing a beer with Phil Thompson and Robbie Fowler, two men who carry the weight of Liverpool’s history in every room they enter.
Thompson, a three-time European Cup winner with the club, spoke about chatting with Iraola about the coming season and their families. It was a small scene, but a telling one. When Thompson was lifting his third European Cup, Iraola had not yet been born. Now the Spaniard sits in the manager’s chair, acknowledging the past while trying to write his own chapter.
He knows exactly what those legends represent. He also knows that respect alone will not be enough once the Premier League kicks off.
For now, though, the foundations are being laid far from Anfield, on a grey day in the Windy City. Three weeks remain before Iraola walks out for his first league game as Liverpool manager.
By then, the smiles, the shouts, the armband decisions and the hard yards in Chicago will either look like the start of something serious — or the calm before a very different kind of storm.
