When new head coach Andoni Iraola was announced it was soon clear that an essential part of his style demanded pacy wingers which was music to the ears of Reds supporters because we had just survived one of the slowest approaches to play in the previous season.
There was a time not too far back where Liverpool boasted one of the greatest ever attacking units in football of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino. All three complimented each other with Firmino the purely selfless one who took
joy in setting up Mo and Mane with some outrageous flicks and tricks plus the uncanny way of knowing exactly where the other two would be without needing to look. Something else though was the shear power and pace that sucked the air out of opponents who were left wondering how their attack was suddenly turned into a goal down the other end of the pitch for Liverpool.
Coming back to the present and even though it’s early days there is no denying that the Reds have pace to burn down the wings with new signings Barcola and Munoz. Of course there is more to just running fast but it seems that both have skills to match and the lesser known Munoz already has an assist via being fouled in the penalty box after bursting into it with the ball as well a goal that earned us a point against Nottingham Forest. Is Munoz raw? yes he is but it’s a natural pace and determined energy which saw him selected for the 2026 World Cup winning Spanish national squad.
This writer is reminded of former Red Xherdan Shaqiri when watching Munoz and most of that is down to physical build as well power which isn’t to say there is a lack of footballing skill, far from it, but the physical impact is impossible to ignore. It’s also very impressive how Munoz, who has predominately played on the left, is having such an impact on the right that he is the obvious starter and for this writer it’s quelled the frustration that a right winger wasn’t brought during the summer. To be honest the fixation on that factor is not something that concerns Iraola and both Munoz’s performances and Iraola demand for positional flexibility is refreshing and proof that such rigid structuring of roles can be unnecessarily restricting.
On Friday night in the game against Ipswich our new signing Bradley Barcola made his debut for the last thirty minutes and the traveling Reds sang his song (originally former Maxi Rodriguez’s song) as he stepped onto the pitch. As much as the supporters would have loved to see Barcola score or get an assist that wasn’t the expectation but he did break a 26/27 Premier League season record (early days yes) for top speed by a player with one run reaching 35.9km/h (according to FotMob).
Barcola’s recent career performances with PSG and also being a member of the French national squad means we already know he is an elite player with a lot of experience yet it still came as a surprise, to this writer at least, that in Barcola’s first appearance for Liverpool he would be getting up to those kind of speeds.
Possibly the one thought of caution in some supporter’s heads is that teams setting up low-blocks will make pace something of little value and that does seem to hold water yet there is no hiding from the fact that Liverpool really suffered with no pace last season. It’s also better to have tools that are ready to be used at any given moment than not have those particular tools available and both Munoz and Barcola have much more to offer than pace alone.
With the first 26/27 Champions league game at Anfield on Wednesday night it will be exciting to witness Liverpool’s new speed merchants racing down the wingers, one with a little more grace while the other will power through all opponents without fear.
