Liverpool's Spanish head coach Andoni Iraola waits for the start of the pre-season friendly football match between Liverpool and Como at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on August 16, 2026. (Photo by Darren Staples / AFP via Getty Images)
Andoni Iraola still has plenty to think about despite Liverpool ending pre-season with a morale-boosting 2-0 win over Como at Anfield (Image: Darren Staples / AFP via Getty Images)
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There was plenty to enjoy about Liverpool’s performance in this final friendly against Como, not least the ability to maintain their level for much of the 90 minutes after a recent brace of dismal second-half showings.
But that they remain, and are likely to for some time, a work in progress under new head coach Andoni Iraola is evident in the one area of the team they have yet to bolster during the transfer window.
The make-up of the midfield was long debated during the tortuous last campaign having been the bedrock of the Premier League title triumph the previous year.
Alexis Mac Allister’s late return due to World Cup duty - he featured in the Kirkby friendly against Como earlier in the day - has influenced Iraola’s preference of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai at the base of the engine room.
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While there are few worries in an attacking sense, especially with Florian Wirtz ahead of the duo as the number 10, there isn’t quite the right relationship yet regards defensive duties.
Gravenberch is ostensibly the deeper of the pair but, as against Monaco, was bypassed a bit too readily with Szoboszlai not quite sensing the danger.
It didn’t really matter here. But it will do, particularly in away games. Finding the right understanding - whether between the duo, elsewhere in the present squad or a new recruit - will make a huge difference this season.
Absences prompt transfer question
With the Premier League season nearly upon us, this was an evening almost as much about the players who weren’t involved as the ones given minutes.
The portents, then, do not augur well in the immediate future for Federico Chiesa and Harvey Elliott.
Both featured in the goalless draw against Como’s second-string earlier in the day at the AXA Training Centre in a 70-minute match but, unlike others, weren’t asked to go again in the main event.
Throughout an underwhelming pre-season, Elliott has looked very much a player who has had hardly any football over the previous two years, while Chiesa has shown little sign the approach of Iraola favours him more than that of Arne Slot.
Throw in the continued intrigue over Curtis Jones - the official word, amid ongoing speculation over increased interest from Inter, was he remained absent with the hip problem that ruled him out last weekend against Monaco - and a picture is perhaps being painted for the forthcoming weeks.
Liverpool, though, need to be careful. They are already a couple of players short in terms of squad depth, and it would a dereliction of duty to allow departures without at very least them being replaced.
But having raised just £700,000 from sales so far this summer, it would be a surprise if the Reds didn’t cash in on one or two of their fringe players before the deadline.
Salah wait goes on for Iraola
Mohamed Salah may have taken a while before opting to make Turkish side Trabzonspor his new home.
But it is taking Liverpool even longer to determine the successor, both in the short and long-term, for their abdicated Egyptian King.
Rio Ngumoha was the latest to be given a crack when starting on the right flank here having been given several tastes of the position throughout pre-season.
There were a few flashes during the first half, but nothing to overly convince. And it was the same with Lewis Koumas and later Victor Munoz, who both played in the earlier friendly and were introduced in the second half.
A new forward is clearly an imperative, whether that’s one or more of Paris Saint-Germain duo Bradley Barcola and Ibrahima Mbaye or someone else entirely.
Any move, though, surely cannot come at the expense of Cody Gakpo being moved on. For the second weekend in succession, the Netherlands international was instrumental in the attack and opened the scoring in confident fashion.
Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola is going to need the versatility, experience and renewed quality of Gakpo this season.