Liverpool's New Era Begins: Andoni Iraola's First Game

In Nashville’s summer heat, Liverpool begin a new story.

Andoni Iraola steps out for the first time as Liverpool head coach on Saturday, against Sunderland at Geodis Park, with curiosity and expectation swirling in equal measure. It is only a friendly, the first of three games on this US tour, but it carries the weight of a first impression.

Kick-off is 5pm local time, 11pm back in Liverpool. A long way from Anfield, yet every touch will be watched, judged, replayed.

A sombre start, a sharp focus

Before a ball is kicked, there will be a moment that cuts through the pre-season chatter. Both Liverpool and Sunderland will wear black armbands and observe a minute’s applause in memory of Kevin Keegan, whose death earlier this week has shaken both clubs he served with such distinction.

Then the attention swings straight back to Iraola.

He knows exactly what he has walked into. Liverpool have just parted ways with Arne Slot, and the club has not simply changed manager; it has changed direction. Iraola has been clear about his mandate.

“For me, now, it is about creating a very good team to beat, a very difficult team to beat,” he said. “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.”

The words are measured. The reality will be written on the pitch.

Style, not scoreline

Pre-season rarely lives in the record books. Nobody remembers who won in Nashville. They remember how a new Liverpool side looked.

Come the Premier League, results will rule. For now, it is all about patterns, intensity, and whether Iraola’s Liverpool feel like Liverpool.

Ian Rush, watching from close quarters, believes the club have chosen a coach whose football should resonate.

“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,” Rush tells 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.”

That is the bar. High pressing, front-foot football, a team that hunts together. The fans will forgive rust. They will not forgive apathy.

Music City, muted build-up

Geodis Park, home of Nashville SC, holds around 30,000. There are still plenty of tickets left. For a club of Liverpool’s global reach, the build-up has felt surprisingly low-key. No sea of red in every bar, no city taken over.

Yet the quiet might suit Iraola. Away from the full glare of Anfield, he can start to shape a side, to get “the team singing from the same hymn sheet”, as the cliché goes, in a city that knows something about rhythm.

Liverpool have brought 32 players to the United States. Not all are here to play heavy minutes; some are simply better off rehabbing with the group than working alone at Kirkby. But the sheer size of the travelling party underlines how much assessment work lies ahead.

The World Cup has complicated everything. Several key names are still on their post-tournament breaks. Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch will not appear until the second week of the camp. Alexis Mac Allister and Victor Munoz will be the last to report. Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson have not travelled at all.

So this first game will have a different feel: more experimental, more youthful, more about systems than stars.

Youthful energy, fresh legs

Inside the camp, the mood has been described as positive, young, energetic. That matters. Long seasons can be powered by the hunger of players who feel they are at the start of something, not the end.

Rush points to those who arrive 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 with the group. Stefan Bajcetic, who last played for Liverpool in 2024, has rejoined full training, a quietly significant step for a midfielder many inside the club rate highly.

Iraola wants to see everything. Who can press the way he demands? Who can handle the ball under pressure? Who can adapt quickly to new roles? This tour will provide answers, but it has already highlighted one glaring issue.

Life after Salah

Liverpool knew as far back as March that Mohamed Salah was leaving. They have had time. They have had warning. They still do not have a replacement.

The club want a winger. Bradley Barcola is currently the most likely option, but until a deal is done, the gap on the right remains.

Into that space steps 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha, a left-sided talent being schooled to operate on either flank. He has been training as an option on the right as well as his preferred left, a clear sign of how urgently Liverpool must reconfigure their attack.

There is no question about Ngumoha’s ability. The question is timing. Liverpool will not place the full weight of Salah’s legacy on a teenager’s shoulders.

“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 says. “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 for the second week of the tour will be watched closely. This is a forward who can change the narrative of his Liverpool career in a single season if he catches fire.

Kids on the big stage

The US tour will not just be about the headline names. Over the next week, supporters should expect to see more of Kieran Morrison, 19, who made his debut last season, as well as 18-year-olds Will Wright and Josh Sonni-Lambie.

And then there is 16-year-old Josh Abe, already talked about as one of the brightest young prospects in English football. These are the games where reputations start to form: a sharp cameo, a fearless run, a clever touch in a tight space. Iraola will be watching as closely as anyone.

He knows this squad still needs work before the Premier League starts. He knows the transfer market must deliver. But he also knows that inside this travelling group, amid the heat and the jet lag and the empty seats, there might be the beginnings of the team he has been “envisioning”.

Liverpool against Sunderland in Nashville will not define a season. It will, though, offer the first real glimpse of what Iraola’s Liverpool might become – and whether this new era is about to catch light or simply flicker.