Liverpool Prepares for New Season with Iraola's Debut at Newcastle
Liverpool’s new season starts with a split focus and no room for error. One eye on St James’ Park. The other on the phone.
As Andoni Iraola prepares for his Premier League debut with the club away at Newcastle on Sunday, the backdrop is a club braced for a frantic final week of the summer window. Transfers and tactics are colliding at high speed.
The fixture carries its own subplot. Alexander Isak, now leading the line for Liverpool, walks back into the stadium where he made his name in England. Newcastle know exactly what he can do. So does Iraola – and he needs every bit of it.
Iraola steps into the heat
The Spaniard has arrived at Anfield under a heavy weight of expectation. Arne Slot’s second season brought Champions League qualification but fell short of the standards Liverpool demand. Title talk faded too early, too easily.
Iraola has been hired to drag the club back into that conversation. To do that, he needs more than ideas and intensity. He needs bodies.
He knows it. The club knows it. The league will find out quickly if Liverpool have moved fast enough.
Endrick turns Liverpool down
One potential solution has already slipped away.
Real Madrid forward Endrick has rejected Liverpool’s interest, choosing instead to fight for his place under Jose Mourinho at the Bernabeu. The 20-year-old returns to Spain after a standout loan spell at Lyon, where he produced eight goals and eight assists in 21 appearances.
He expected that form to open a clearer path into Madrid’s attack. Then Yan Diomande arrived for £100million and the picture changed.
Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe are locked in as starters, swallowing up two of the three attacking berths. Diomande is the favourite to claim the remaining slot on the right. Rodrygo is still in the mix once he recovers from injury, and Mourinho is said to want him involved.
It looks like a traffic jam. Endrick is backing himself to cut through it. ESPN report that the Brazilian still believes he can carve out minutes in that crowded forward line.
Liverpool had seen something different. For Iraola, Endrick would have been a flexible weapon: cover for Isak through the middle, an option off the right, a young attacker with room to grow into a leading role.
That matters because Liverpool have yet to replace Mohamed Salah after his sudden exit this summer. The right flank, for a decade defined by one man, now sits as the biggest question mark in the squad.
The club have already tested the market. A £50m bid for Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh was knocked back this week, with Liverpool expected to return with an improved offer. The need is obvious. So is the urgency.
“We will definitely sign some players”
If the outside noise wasn’t loud enough, Iraola turned up the volume himself.
Liverpool’s head coach has been blunt about the state of his squad. He called it “thin” and promised movement before the deadline on September 1.
“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.”
One signing is already through the door. Ronald Araujo has arrived on loan from Barcelona after Joe Gomez suffered an injury in pre-season. It plugs one gap but exposes others.
Right-back remains a concern with Conor Bradley struggling for fitness. Curtis Jones has departed for Inter Milan, stripping more depth from midfield at a time when Iraola’s high-energy style demands fresh legs and rotation.
That combination pushes Liverpool towards at least one midfield addition before the window shuts. The exact profile can be debated. The need cannot.
Still, the dominant theme remains the right side of attack. Salah’s shadow hangs over that flank, and someone has to step into it.
Rio Ngumoha is expected to see more minutes there, a young talent pushed closer to the spotlight. Victor Munoz can also operate off that wing, even if it is not his preferred side. Internal solutions exist, but they come with risk in a season that demands immediate competitiveness.
The season starts at St James’ Park. The real shape of Iraola’s Liverpool, though, might not be clear until the window slams shut.
