Amazing news, winger just gave the Liverpool update we wanted to hear
Liverpool played their first pre-season fixture on Saturday evening. And the right things are being said coming out of it.
This is a massive season for Liverpool. There's a new head coach in Andoni Iraola, of course, but regardless of that, it's vital that the Reds show their potential.
Liverpool spent over £400m on new players in 2025 and followed that transfer window with a sub-par season in which they clearly look a step backwards. It's incredibly easy to feel the club made a gigantic, costly mistake coming out of that.
And so we all need to see that this wasn't the case. That Liverpool were actually giving the wrong squad to the wrong coach, and that the mismatch there was the reason for stepping backwards, rather than poor squad construction.
The move to Iraola is recognition of that and now things have to go well in order to move the club in the right direction. If Iraola struggles, then Liverpool will be in an incredibly difficult position as it'll be difficult to believe anything other than the squad being poor.
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That would necessitate another massive, expensive overhaul. Everyone would rather avoid that.
But we don't think there's much to worry about. Liverpool had a lot of concerns last season and one of those was unquestionably a lack of intensity.
The pressing wasn't good enough, the squad appeared to lack energy, and the style of play under Jurgen Klopp looked entirely lost. Iraola is setting about fixing the lot.
Kieran Morrison, who scored in the 4-2 win over Sunderland on Saturday, spoke about pre-season so far and made it clear that the intensity levels are much, much higher. Iraola has them working hard, in other words.
“It’s been so intense compared to the previous season," he said, per The Redmen TV.
"I’m not really been around it [last season] but from what everyone has been telling me who has, I’ve seen it’s been so intense, it’s been double sessions, my legs have been finished by like 9pm, the intensity what Andoni has bought is very high.”
This is exactly what we wanted to hear. That lack of intensity hurt Liverpool badly last season, allowing 'worse' teams to wrestle control away from them.
It sounds as though Iraola recognises that and wants to correct it. Things sound well and truly back on track, in other words.
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