Liverpool's Pre-Season Challenges: Jacquet, Jones, and Ngumoha

Andoni Iraola’s first pre-season at Liverpool has barely started, but the to-do list is already sharp and unforgiving.

The staggered return of the squad is in motion. By July 14, the new head coach will finally have his full group at the AXA Training Centre, with a flight to the United States looming on July 20. Those few days in between will be precious. Liverpool are coming off a disappointing campaign; this summer cannot be wasted.

Three issues, in particular, demand early answers.

1. Fast‑track Jacquet

Jeremy Jacquet turns 21 on Monday. He arrives for £60m, off the back of shoulder surgery that cut short his season in February. New club, new league, new expectations, and a body still finding full strength. It’s a lot.

Liverpool’s hierarchy would not have pushed that fee across the table if they doubted his temperament. They see a future partner for Virgil van Dijk, not a project to be hidden away. With Giovanni Leoni still recovering from the ACL injury he suffered 10 months ago, Jacquet is likely to spend the summer alongside Joe Gomez at centre-back. There will be nowhere to hide, even if the games are technically friendlies.

The Frenchman’s unveiling last week showed a player desperate to make an impression. Pre-season will give him the platform. Iraola must give him the structure.

The Basque coach has done this before. At Bournemouth, he helped turn Dean Huijsen from a talented prospect into a Spain international and, ultimately, a £60m signing for Real Madrid. That track record is not a coincidence. Iraola knows how to refine young defenders with high ceilings and rough edges.

Jacquet will be the only new signing on the US tour, which only heightens the scrutiny. Every touch, every duel, every mistake will be over-analysed. The club can talk about fitness and conditioning all they like; supporters will be watching for signs that this is the defender who can stand alongside van Dijk when the Premier League starts.

For Iraola, the brief is clear. Get Jacquet up to speed, tactically and physically. Build an understanding with the back line. Let him feel the responsibility without being crushed by it. If Liverpool are serious about resetting after last season, that rebuild starts at centre-back.

2. Curtis Jones: stay, go, or reset?

Curtis Jones walks back through the doors at Kirkby next week with his future hanging in the balance.

Liverpool have already turned away two approaches from Inter. The latest bid, lodged last month, fell short of £22m. Liverpool, reluctant sellers at best, would only seriously engage at around £35m. That gap in valuation has led some inside Anfield to wonder if talks are already drifting towards stalemate.

So the next move may not come from Milan. It may come from Iraola.

Jones has been on holiday in Mallorca with his fiancée, Saffie, but the reality waiting for him at the AXA Training Centre is stark. Game time has been sporadic, his role unclear. At the same time, there is a window opening: Alexis Mac Allister remains at the World Cup with Argentina, Ryan Gravenberch is still away on his break, and a midfield spot is there to be claimed.

For a city-centre-born Academy graduate, leaving Liverpool is not a decision taken lightly. Yet clubs like Inter and Aston Villa have sensed an opportunity, reading the reduced minutes as a crack in the door.

This is where Iraola’s man-management will be tested early. He needs clarity. Is Jones ready to reboot his Liverpool career under a new coach, in a new system, with new demands? Or is he quietly looking for a fresh start elsewhere?

If Jones impresses on tour, the pathway is obvious. With Mac Allister away, he can play himself into contention for a Premier League starting shirt. Not as a squad filler, but as a key part of Iraola’s midfield structure.

Those conversations between player and head coach in the coming days will be decisive. Liverpool cannot build around a midfielder with one eye on the exit. Nor can they afford to lose a homegrown talent without being certain he has reached his ceiling at Anfield.

For Jones, this pre-season feels less like a warm-up and more like a crossroads.

3. Ngumoha and the right-wing rethink

Liverpool’s recruitment strategy this summer tells one story. Their internal debates about Rio Ngumoha might tell another.

The club have already triggered a £34.5m release clause in Victor Munoz’s Osasuna contract and have informed RB Leipzig they are prepared to go to £86m for Yan Diomande. Both are adaptable, but both are at their best off the left. Interest in Bradley Barcola at Paris Saint-Germain points in the same direction: another left-sided preference.

All this at a time when Liverpool, in theory, should be planning for life after Mohamed Salah on the right of the front three. Spending huge sums on players and then flipping their natural side carries risk. It grates with some at the club.

So another idea has started to gather pace: Ngumoha as a right-sided attacker.

The teenager’s rise over the past year has been electric. He used last summer to force his way into the first-team picture, then scored his first Premier League goal just days before his 17th birthday in that wild 3-2 win at Newcastle United in late August. By the end of the season, he was not just a squad option but a Liverpool starter and an England international.

His form in the United States last month, including a player-of-the-match display against New Zealand, left him agonisingly close to a World Cup place. It also hardened Liverpool’s stance. They want him tied down. A new contract will be discussed when he turns 18 in late August. Bayern Munich have been monitoring the situation, but Liverpool have no appetite to let a talent of this magnitude slip away.

Ngumoha’s cameo for England in America came on the right. That has sharpened the conversation. Modern football has largely moved towards inverted wingers, cutting inside on their stronger foot to shoot. Liverpool are weighing something different: Ngumoha as a more traditional wideman, driving on the outside and whipping balls into the box.

The logic is clear. Alexander Isak cost £125m and needs a steady supply of high-quality chances. A right-sided winger who can isolate full-backs, hit the byline and deliver early, dangerous crosses could be exactly what unlocks him more consistently.

Compared to targets like Barcola, Ngumoha is raw. He has far less senior football behind him. That might actually work in Iraola’s favour. At this stage of his career, the 17-year-old is still malleable. A coach with a strong idea can shape him into a specific type of wide forward.

Where Iraola deploys him this summer will be telling. Stick him on the left and you lean into the familiar. Trust him on the right and you might be watching the first steps of Liverpool’s long-term Salah succession plan being drawn from within.

Iraola built his reputation at Bournemouth by elevating young forwards such as Eli Junior Kroupi, Rayan and Antoine Semenyo. Now he inherits Ngumoha, perhaps the most exciting of the lot.

A small positional tweak, a shift of flank, and Liverpool’s entire attacking blueprint for the next era could look very different.