Andoni Iraola has confirmed when Victor Munoz, Alisson Becker and Alexis Mac Allister will report for Liverpool's pre-season, with new signing Munoz cutting his holiday short to begin work at the AXA Training Centre next week.
Munoz became Liverpool's first signing of the Iraola era in June, joining from La Liga side Osasuna in a £34.5m deal. The 22-year-old Barcelona academy graduate and former Real Madrid player had been expected to join Newcastle United before the Reds intervened. He was part of the Spain squad that reached the World Cup last month.
Munoz returns early
"He comes next week," Iraola told the club's official website. "We spoke to him and he wanted also to come a little bit earlier than the three weeks that they have the right to have, because obviously he is coming to a new club, he will need some time to adapt, to meet his teammates. We will have him next week as soon as we arrive there, basically. It's good news."
Alisson and Mac Allister
On Alisson, Iraola confirmed the goalkeeper will be at the AXA Training Centre from the first day of the club's return to Liverpool, having arrived a little later than Cody Gakpo and Virgil van Dijk.
"Alisson will be there from the first day. He was arriving to AXA a little bit later than Cody [Gakpo] and Virgil [van Dijk]. But he will be [there] since the first day that we arrive and will start training there in Liverpool."
On Mac Allister, Iraola said the midfielder will rest until the Monaco game after playing a long season and reaching the World Cup final.
"And Alexis will have, I think, until the Monaco game. I think deserved holidays for him; long season, long World Cup, played until the final, has played a lot of minutes. I hope he comes fully recovered and he enjoys also the break that he definitely has earned."
Pre-season schedule and fitness update
After facing Leeds United in Chicago on Sunday night, Liverpool return to Anfield for games against Monaco and Como. Iraola said the squad has two or three friendlies, counting the double header against Como, and wants to make the most of them.
"We have two or three friendlies, three if we count the double against Como. And then it starts. There is a part where you want to start straight away and feel the pressure of the competition, but also you want to use every friendly as good as we can because every friendly gives us things to correct, things that we still don't have, the timings to improve. The more information, the more things we can correct before we start, it's going to be much better."
There was also positive news on the fitness of Stefan Bajcetic and Wataru Endo.
"Stefan is training basically fully with the team. Wataru has started training more progressively but [is] very close to being ready. I hope Wata can play probably against Monaco. He should be able to have some minutes."
