New Liverpool boss Iraola: 12 players out for Sunderland friendly

Andoni Iraola will take charge of his first game as Liverpool manager on Saturday, as the Reds face Sunderland in Nashville to kick off their pre-season tour of the United States.

When Andoni Iraola boarded the plane for Liverpool's pre-season tour, he was travelling light. The Reds arrived in America with a squad missing most of its biggest stars.

Either through injury or because they are still on holiday after the World Cup, a total of 12 players will miss Saturday's first friendly against Sunderland in Nashville. That is not an ideal situation for any manager with less than a month to go until the start of a season — never mind one fresh into the job.

Iraola comes from a settled environment at Bournemouth, where for all three years the vast majority of the squad were available from the opening day of pre-season. The same goes for his assistants — Tommy Elphick, Shaun Cooper, Pablo de la Torre and Tom Webber — who have followed him from the south coast to Merseyside.

But Iraola and his coaching staff are not the only men at Anfield with headaches. Liverpool's recruitment team are working on new signings, with the clock ticking on the summer transfer window and the launch of the club's new era at Newcastle on August 23.

Key Absentees

Whether it be inside the dressing room or on the training pitch, the absence of players such as Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch is only making Iraola's task harder. The Spaniard would have liked to have worked the trio from day one, as they are expected to be pillars of his starting line-up.

Getting those characters to buy into his philosophy will be crucial, with the squad apparently at odds with how Arne Slot operated during his second and ultimately final season.

Earlier this week, Iraola suggested that Alexis Mac Allister and fellow World Cup finalist Victor Munoz could miss the trip to St James' Park altogether as they catch up after a long summer.

But in more positive news, the Reds boss did confirm that Gravenberch, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz will join up with their team-mates at their base in Chicago next week. Iraola hopes that giving players ample time off will serve Liverpool well over the course of the season.

"We cannot only think in the short term and the first game against Newcastle; we have to also understand, especially in the case of Alexis, who played a lot of minutes during the season and a lot of minutes in the World Cup, that they deserve this rest," the ex-Bournemouth manager explained. "All the others should be fine to arrive in perfect conditions to the first game."

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