PC: Adam Belmares/LMD Media Group
Ahead of Liverpool's 2026 U.S. preseason tour, Liverpool's newest head coach Andoni Iraola spoke openly to the media about concerns regarding the current roster for the club ahead of their 2026-2027 Premier League campaign.
Following the departure of former Liverpool head coach Arne Slot, Iraola signed a two-year contract after leaving AFC Bournemouth at the end of the 2025–26 season. The U.S preseason tour will be Iraola's first preseason with the club.
This preseason will be a challenge for the Spanish manager due to several players, who participated in the later rounds of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, being granted extended breaks away from the team for recovery and vacation. A positive from this slight setback is that Iraola will have more time than ever to assess younger players within the squad and potential first-team prospects that will be traveling with the club.
The Reds arrived at Chicago on Monday to train for their upcoming friendly fixtures that feature three matches across three different U.S cities. The club will be training at the multi-million-dollar Endeavor Health Performance Center, the current training grounds for the Chicago Fire.
"When you have a World Cup, you don't have a lot of trainings. You don't have a lot of friendlies before the season starts," Iraola said on Tuesday during a press conference in Chicago. "Every training session, preseason friendly for us is massive because sometimes we lack days of training properly, training with the whole group of players, so everything we get from every friendly we play, we have to use it properly."
Liverpool's newest head coach brought an initial 31-player traveling squad to Chicago including: Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa, Curtis Jones, Joe Gomez, Harvey Elliott, Conor Bradley, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Wataru Endo and Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Szoboszlai recently signed a new five-year contract with Liverpool and has been with the club since 2023.
Iraola expressed his excitement about the new contract, describing it as “the greatest news since I arrived”.
Liverpool will travel to Nashville for Saturday’s opening friendly against Sunderland. Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch are set to rejoin the group after recovering from World Cup recovery before the second match of the U.S tour against Wrexham in New York.
On the other hand, Liverpool superstars Virgil Van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Alisson Becker will not be traveling to the US to rejoin the group but instead will start their pre-season at the club's Kirkby training grounds.
“With Virgil, he was the player who played the most minutes in Europe I’d say last season,” Iraola said. “Instead of making them come here we decided it was sensible for them to start as part of a small group at the AXA.
“The most difficult situations logically will be Alexis [Mac Allister] and Victor [Muñoz] because they played until the end of the tournament. I think they deserve their holidays and some rest, and I hope they have time at least to train with us a little bit. But it is true that it will probably affect a little bit the beginning of the season, but we cannot only think in the short term in terms of the first game against Newcastle.”
Although rumors have been circulating about the club potentially moving on from Mac Allister, Iraola emphasized his desire to keep as much players as he can if it is in the best interest of the club.
"Alexis has been one of the best players in the club in the last years,” Iraola said. “He had a very good World Cup, so it is normal that other clubs want our best players. It always happens in the market. I want to keep my good players. I am looking more to sign new players than losing the ones we have.
The roster includes a good mix of well-established first-team players, young prospects from the Liverpool Academy, and players slowly returning from injury recovery.
Considering the departure of one of the club's greatest-ever scorers in Mohamed Salah and Darwin Núñez completing a move to Al Hilal after four seasons at Liverpool, the club's attacking unit is set to look a lot different this upcoming season.
Iraola is well aware of the fact that his new club is in need of a major signing ahead of the club's opening Premier league match on August 23 against Newcastle United.
“It is difficult to say a number when the market is open,” Iraola said. “You have to be always open to new options to improve the squad. There are obvious situations where we know we need to sign players. Winger, for example. We definitely need to sign a winger."
The Reds will conclude their U.S preseason tour in Chicago on Aug. 2 against Premier League rival Leeds United at Soldier Field.
Iraola is no stranger to Chicago. He will be returning to the city after coaching his former club AFC Bournemouth during the 2025 Premier League Summer Series hosted in Chicago.
