Liverpool played their second pre-season game of the summer on Wednesday and their second under new head coach Andoni Iraola, and while their 1-0 victory over Wrexham was a narrower result than the weekend’s 4-2 win over Sunderland, he remained happy with what he saw.
While still early days and with many key first team stars missing after the World Cup—not to mention more work needing to be done in the transfer market—Iraola saw more signs of cohesive team play that encouraged him as he continues
to look to mold the players he does have available.
“I think overall we were more solid than the other day,” he noted after the match. “It was a different kind of game, the pitch is quite narrow and there are not a lot of spaces, but I think we had good spells. The other day maybe you score more, but I think today we were more a team.
“Still, I think we’re not quite there, but I think it’s a step forward. Slowly, slowly I hope every game we are closer. We will also start to add new bodies, because now we are playing with a lot of young players and now we have to add the senior players that are starting to train with us.”
Stars like Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch have been with the team in America for a few days now, and others including Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo are starting to trickle back, meaning there could a few more recognizable senior names involved in their final tour friendly.
That game will be held in Chicago on Sunday when the Reds take on Leeds at Soldier Field before heading back to England to finish their pre-season preparations with friendlies against Monaco and Como, with their 2026-27 season then kicking off August 23rd away at Newcastle.
“My idea is for Ryan [Gravenberch], for Florian [Wirtz], for Alex [Isak], for even Jeremy Jacquet to have their first minutes against Leeds,” Iraola added. “We’ll see how many minutes they are ready to play but I think they should be ready on the weekend to have their first minutes.”
