Liverpool's Pre-Season Test Against Sunderland: A New Era Under Iraola

In the heat of a Nashville summer, Liverpool are about to discover what Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool actually looks like.

The Reds face Sunderland at Geodis Park on Saturday evening – 5pm local time, 11pm BST – the first glimpse of a new era, and the first real test of whether the Basque coach can tune this squad to a sound the supporters recognise as their own.

A new voice, the same demands

The backdrop is emotional. After the death of Kevin Keegan earlier this week, both Liverpool and Sunderland will wear black armbands, with a minute’s applause before kick-off. A nod to a giant of both clubs, and a reminder of the standards that built them.

Iraola steps into that history with his eyes open. He knows charm won’t save him. Style might.

“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.”

That is the job description at Liverpool in a single breath. Talk all you like. The pitch is the only argument that counts.

From Bournemouth to the big time

This is a leap. From Bournemouth to Liverpool. From survival battles to a club that measures itself in trophies and memories.

Ian Rush, who knows the weight of the shirt better than most, believes Iraola belongs here.

“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 crux. High tempo. High press. High risk. It is what the Kop expects, even if the Kop is temporarily 4,000 miles away in Tennessee.

Music City, muted build-up

Geodis Park holds around 30,000, yet there are still plenty of tickets left. For all Liverpool’s global reach, you wouldn’t necessarily know they were in town from walking the streets.

Inside the camp, the noise is very different. Iraola has 32 players with him in the United States, some there purely to continue rehabilitation within the group rather than at an empty training ground back home. The mood has been described as positive, youthful, energetic.

There are absentees, of course. A summer World Cup has scattered key names and staggered returns. Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch will join in the second week of the tour. Alexis Mac Allister and Victor Munoz will be the last to report. Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson will not travel at all.

So this first outing is not the finished article. It is a sketch, not the painting.

Youthful energy, old expectations

What Iraola does have is freshness. Legs that haven’t just been through a tournament.

“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,” Rush says.

Harvey Elliott is back in the squad. Stefan Bajcetic, whose season was wrecked by injury, rejoined full team training on Friday. The Spanish midfielder last played for Liverpool in 2024; his return offers a different profile in the middle of the pitch, something Iraola will want to examine closely over the next few games.

He intends to look at everything. Every option, every angle. Yet nobody inside the club is pretending this squad is complete.

Life after Salah

The biggest hole is the most obvious one. Liverpool knew in March, if not earlier, that Mohamed Salah was leaving. They have still not replaced him.

They want a winger. Bradley Barcola is the name that currently fits the bill best, but he is not in Nashville, New York or Chicago. Until a deal is done, Iraola has to improvise.

Seventeen-year-old Rio Ngumoha has been training across both flanks and is being prepared as an option on the right as well as his natural left. There is no doubt about his talent; there is also no doubt Liverpool will look to sign in that area before the Premier League begins.

“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.”

This is the tension of pre-season. Auditioning the future while waiting for the market to move.

Kids on the big stage

Ngumoha is not alone. Across the next week or so, supporters can expect to see more of Kieran Morrison, 19, who made his debut last season, as well as Will Wright, 18, and Josh Sonni-Lambie, 18. Sixteen-year-old Josh Abe, widely regarded as one of the standout young prospects in English football, is another name to watch.

These are not the players expected to carry Liverpool through a title race. Not yet. But this is how it starts for many of them – a humid night in an American stadium, a pre-season friendly that feels low-key in the city but looms large in their own careers.

For Iraola, Sunderland in Nashville is about something slightly different. It is the first chance to show that his Liverpool will run, press and attack in a way that fits the club’s identity, even before the full cast arrives and the transfer gaps are filled.

The fans will not judge him on this game alone. They will, though, remember the first time his team truly looked like Liverpool. Will that moment come under the floodlights of Geodis Park, or will they have to wait a little longer?