Iraola's First Training Session as Liverpool Head Coach

Under low, heavy clouds on the edge of Chicago, two eras shared a training pitch.

At one end of the Chicago Fire performance centre, Robert Lewandowski, now 37 and in MLS colours, was still at it, rolling back the years from 12 yards. He stepped up, ran through that familiar routine – and then smashed a penalty high over the bar as his session wound down.

At the other end, Liverpool’s began.

It was Andoni Iraola’s first open training session as Liverpool head coach, the first real public glimpse of what his version of this club might look like. The setting was low-key, the significance anything but.

Szoboszlai, Jones and a storm in a social-media teacup

The backdrop to the afternoon had been set days earlier. A clip from the win over Wrexham in New York had done the rounds online: Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in a heated exchange at full-time, Kostas Tsimikas nearby, the kind of flare-up that in the smartphone age quickly becomes “a situation”.

Jones has been linked with Inter Milan. The video fuelled the noise.

Szoboszlai had already tried to pour water on it on Thursday, stressing that everyone was “in the same boat”, all pushing for the same thing. On Friday, his actions did the talking.

Szoboszlai, Jones and Tsimikas walked out together for training, side by side, juggling the ball between them, laughing, trading little tricks right in front of the cameras that had feasted on their argument. Whatever had been said in New York, it stayed there.

The disagreement is understood to have stemmed from Szoboszlai handing the captain’s armband to Tsimikas rather than Jones. A flash of pride, a question of hierarchy, nothing more. By the time they stepped onto the grass in Chicago, it looked done and dusted.

It was a reminder of something else, though. With Andy Robertson gone, Liverpool still do not have a named vice-captain. Iraola will have to settle that soon. In an age where every exchange can be clipped, slowed down and dissected from Row Z, some decisions are better made before the cameras roll.

Key men back, one doubt lingers

There was more tangible good news for Iraola. Record signing Alexander Isak returned to full training this week, a significant boost with three weeks to go before the Premier League kicks off.

Isak, Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch had all missed the trip to New York, where Liverpool edged Wrexham 1-0 in their second pre-season outing. All three are expected to feature on Sunday against Leeds at Soldier Field, a chance for supporters to see the spine Iraola intends to build around.

Jeremy Jacquet was a notable absentee from the main group, though he did work in the gym as Liverpool carefully manage his comeback from the shoulder injury he suffered in February. Iraola had suggested earlier in the week that the centre-back would be involved this weekend; now he is a doubt.

Joe Gomez, already ruled out for the start of the Premier League season, also continued his rehab indoors. For all the optimism around returning stars, the defensive jigsaw is not yet complete.

Iraola’s voice, Iraola’s tempo

Once the warm-up cones were cleared away, the session snapped into focus. Iraola’s fingerprints were obvious.

He was loud, insistent, constantly on the move. “Play in possession.” “Quicker, quicker.” The phrases cut across the pitches, the soundtrack to a coach trying to rewire a team’s habits in real time.

Drills were sharp and compact, with small-sided games that demanded quick decisions and quicker feet. Goals in the mini-games were greeted with little celebrations, high-fives, shouts of approval. This did not feel like a gentle pre-season loosener; it felt like standards being set.

Iraola stepped in often, stopping play to shift a player’s position by a yard, to point out a passing lane, to adjust a pressing trigger. Players listened, argued back at times, then went again. The atmosphere was bright, competitive, alive.

Then the group split.

One cluster moved to a smaller pitch for an intense nine-a-side match, the kind of chaotic, transitional football Iraola’s teams tend to thrive on. The other worked on set-pieces with assistants Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper.

Wirtz took charge of corners, swinging deliveries in while Elphick, bib on, joined the action himself. It was detail work, but serious detail – starting positions, blocks, runs from deep. Margins that decide tight games in cold English rain were being rehearsed under Chicago’s grey skies.

Watching from the sidelines was Mike Gordon, the Fenway Sports Group president, back in the thick of Liverpool operations and expected at Soldier Field on Sunday. His presence underlined the importance of this tour: this is not just fitness and fan events, it is the first draft of a new era.

A beer with the past, and a nod to the future

Off the pitch, Iraola has been doing his homework on the club he has inherited. On Thursday night, Liverpool held a team dinner. Afterwards, the new head coach shared a beer with Phil Thompson and Robbie Fowler – two men who know as well as anyone what this club demands.

Thompson, a three-time European Cup winner with Liverpool, spoke about chatting to Iraola about the season ahead and their families. It is a striking detail: when Thompson lifted his third European Cup, Iraola had not even been born.

Yet here they were, trading stories, a legend of the old Liverpool and the man charged with shaping the new one. For Iraola, recognising the weight of that history is not optional. It is part of the job description.

Back on the training pitch, those conversations translated into action. High tempo. Clear demands. Visible authority. A squad being pushed, prodded, tuned.

There are three weeks until Iraola walks out for his first Premier League game as Liverpool manager. That is not long. But under the gloomy Midwestern sky, on a shared field with a great striker nearing the twilight of his career, the first seeds of his Liverpool were quietly being sown.

The question now is how quickly they grow.