Liverpool Pre-Season Begins in Nashville Under Iraola

In Nashville’s summer heat, Liverpool begin again.

Andoni Iraola steps out at Geodis Park on Saturday not just for a pre-season friendly against Sunderland, but for the first glimpse of what his Liverpool might look like. Kick-off is 5pm local time (11pm BST) in the Music City, where a new era starts with as many questions as answers.

A new man, a demanding stage

Iraola does not need reminding where he has landed. Bournemouth to Liverpool is a leap across footballing continents, not just clubs, and he knows the margin for error is thin.

"For me, now, it is about creating a very good team to beat, a very difficult team to beat," he said this week. "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."

That line cuts straight to the heart of the job. At Liverpool, charm only carries you so far. The rest is about what happens when the whistle goes.

The Premier League will judge him on results. This tour will judge him on ideas.

Rush’s verdict and a restless fanbase

Inside the club, there is a clear sense of what Iraola has been hired to bring back: edge, aggression, and a front-foot game that reconnects with a support that felt strangely muted at times last season.

"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 told BBC Sport.

"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," Rush added.

That last sentence is the crux of this tour. Not the scorelines. Not the fitness data. The shape, the press, the tempo. What it looks like.

A quiet host city, a loud responsibility

Geodis Park holds around 30,000, and there are still plenty of tickets left. For a club of Liverpool’s global pull, it feels low-key. You wouldn’t immediately know a European giant is in town.

But the symbolism matters. In a city built on sound, Iraola has to get his team in tune quickly. The hymn sheet must be clear, the notes familiar: intensity, cohesion, purpose.

Before any of that, there will be a pause. Both Liverpool and Sunderland will wear black armbands and observe a minute’s applause after the death of Kevin Keegan earlier this week, a poignant nod to a man who left a deep mark on both clubs.

Then the scrutiny begins.

A stretched, youthful tour squad

Liverpool have brought 32 players to the United States. Some are here less for match minutes and more to continue rehabilitation within the group rather than at a deserted training ground back home.

The World Cup has distorted pre-season. Several key names are missing for now, with Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch due to join up for the second week of the camp. Alexis Mac Allister and Victor Munoz will be the last to arrive. Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson have not travelled.

Inside the camp, the early mood has been described as positive and youthful, and there is logic to that. As Rush pointed out, some of Iraola’s potential pillars are fresher than most.

"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," he said.

Harvey Elliott is back in the group. Stefan Bajcetic, whose 2024 has been wrecked by injury, rejoined full team training on Friday. His last appearance for the club came earlier this year; simply seeing him move freely again is a small win for Iraola.

Gaps in the squad, and a Salah-sized hole

The new head coach will use this tour to scan every corner of his squad, but no amount of tactical ingenuity can disguise the obvious: Liverpool still need reinforcements.

The club knew by March, if not earlier, that Mohamed Salah was leaving. He has not been replaced.

The plan is clear enough. Liverpool want a winger, and Bradley Barcola currently looks the most realistic option. Until anything is agreed, the responsibility falls on a teenager to offer cover in the most scrutinised role in the side.

Seventeen-year-old Rio Ngumoha has been working across both flanks in training, comfortable on his preferred left but also an option on the right. His technical quality is not in doubt, and his versatility gives Iraola a useful card to play in these friendlies.

Still, nobody inside Liverpool pretends this solves the problem. A signing in that area is expected.

"He's still young but as the manager has said, we need someone to replace Salah and that won't be easy at all," Rush said. "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."

Isak’s return, Wirtz’s integration, the evolution of Szoboszlai and Gravenberch – these are medium-term stories. The immediate one is simple: how does Iraola set this team up without its most reliable goalscorer of the last decade?

Kids on the big stage

If there is one upside to the absentees, it is opportunity. Across the next week, supporters will see more of the academy and fringe talent that usually lives in the shadows of senior stars.

Kieran Morrison, 19, who made his debut last season, is expected to feature. So too Will Wright and Josh Sonni-Lambie, both 18. Each brings energy, each is auditioning in front of a manager who has never been afraid to trust youth.

Then there is 16-year-old Josh Abe, widely regarded as one of the brightest young prospects in English football. Tours like this are often where reputations begin to form. A sharp cameo, a fearless touch, a clever run – these are the little moments that stick in a coach’s mind when the real season begins.

The first steps of a long journey

Across this US tour – Sunderland in Nashville, Wrexham in New York, Leeds in Chicago – the cameras will follow, the questions will pile up, and every press will be dissected. BBC Sport will be on the ground for all three games, chronicling each tweak and experiment.

For Iraola, though, the job is more basic right now. He must take a squad missing some of its biggest names, still scarred by the loss of Salah and the upheaval of the summer, and turn it into what he described: a very difficult team to beat.

The first notes of that new tune will be heard in Nashville. How quickly will Anfield be singing along?