Liverpool's Pre-Season Challenges Under Andoni Iraola

Liverpool’s new era under Andoni Iraola has started at full throttle, then run out of gas.

For the second friendly in succession, his side surged into a two-goal lead, only to collapse and lose – 4-2 to Leeds in Chicago, then 3-2 to Monaco at Anfield. Pre-season is supposed to be about patterns and promise. Right now, it is also about warning signs.

Bright starts, brutal fades

In Chicago on 2 August, Iraola called the defeat by Leeds “useful” and said he had “learned a lot of things” about his team. At Anfield on Sunday, with the Premier League kick-off just a fortnight away, the tone hardened. This time, his verdict was blunt: Liverpool have “work to do”.

The Spaniard liked what he saw early on. Against Monaco, he praised the first half-hour. The problem? The tank emptied quickly.

“They don’t have much more, in terms of the levels required to play like this,” he admitted.

Those opening spells against Leeds and Monaco have been the high points of Liverpool’s pre-season. The ball zipped through midfield. The press snapped. The front line looked alive. Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, in particular, carried a sharpness that matched the ambition of their manager’s ideas.

Then the changes came. And so did the drop-off.

Iraola made nine substitutions against Leeds and 11 against Monaco. Each time, Liverpool turned from aggressive and direct into loose and vulnerable. Leeds scored four times in 25 unanswered minutes. Monaco hit three without reply in 44. The contrast was stark and, for a coach who demands constant intensity, deeply instructive.

Fitness, depth and a demanding style

There are mitigating factors. Some players are still climbing back towards full fitness after a post-World Cup break. Others are not available at all: Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni are out for extended periods.

Help is on the way in defence. Uruguay international Ronald Araujo is close to sealing a season-long loan from Barcelona, offering cover at both centre-back and right-back. After the Monaco defeat, captain Virgil van Dijk did not hide the need for reinforcements.

“Let’s see what the next couple of weeks are going to bring,” he said. “Any quality we can add to the team will definitely be welcome so let’s see.”

Yet Iraola’s focus is clear. Whatever the final make-up of his squad, the collective fitness has to rise if Liverpool are to play the way he insists they must. He has brought Pablo de la Torre with him, a trusted assistant who worked as his fitness coach at Bournemouth. The sessions have been unforgiving.

In Chicago, during an open training session, Iraola’s voice cut through the evening air: “Quicker, quicker.” The demand never relented. One player told BBC Sport he felt sick after the first few days under the new regime. Losing in training now comes with a price – a sprint to the far end of the pitch and back.

Milos Kerkez summed up the brief: Iraola wants his players to “play one-on-one all over the pitch, to press high and to always be on the front foot.” It is a blueprint that leaves no hiding place for tired legs.

Lessons from Bournemouth, pressure at Liverpool

This is not a manager experimenting on the fly. Iraola’s Bournemouth side finished last season ranked first in the Premier League for direct attacks and third for high turnovers. His teams play fast, vertical football, and they hunt the ball high. The numbers back up the eye test.

There is a catch. That Bournemouth project started slowly. It took Iraola 10 league games to register his first win in the 2023-24 campaign. The club held its nerve and was rewarded with a team that grew into one of the division’s most awkward opponents.

Liverpool is a different ecosystem. Ten games without a win at Anfield would be unthinkable. Patience here has a shorter fuse, the scrutiny a harsher glare. Iraola knows that, which is why these pre-season lapses matter. They are not decisive, but they are instructive.

Across four friendlies, Liverpool have shown enough in the early phases to suggest they will be thrilling when it clicks. They play in bursts, like a sprinter trying to run a marathon. The style is visible already. The stamina to sustain it is not.

Iraola himself has been realistic from day one. Asked in Chicago whether it would take time before his full blueprint appeared, he did not sell a fantasy.

“I would like to say, no, on the first day, we are going to be perfect, everyone will be in place, but probably it is not going to be like this,” he said. “We will have to do this as quickly as possible.”

Two weeks remain before the real football starts. The ideas are clear. The intent is obvious. The question now is whether Liverpool can build the legs – and the resilience – to live at Iraola’s speed when the points, not just pride, are on the line.