Andoni Iraola has confirmed he expects Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Ryan Gravenberch and Jeremy Jacquet to make their first appearances of pre-season in Liverpool’s friendly with Leeds United on Sunday.
The Reds have been managing Jacquet carefully following his £55m move from Rennes after his final campaign in France ended prematurely by a dislocated shoulder back in February. Isak, Wirtz and Gravenberch only joined up with Iraola’s squad at the start of the week following their World Cup exploits.
Quartet left behind for Wrexham clash
Consequently, the quartet were left behind at the Reds’ training base in Chicago - along with the injured Joe Gomez and Federico Chiesa due to illness - while Iraola’s squad travelled to New York to face Wrexham in the second pre-season outing. Rio Ngumoha’s deflected strike earned Liverpool a 1-0 victory over the Red Dragons.
“We are obviously missing Joe [Gomez] from the other day, he got injured,” Iraola told Liverpoolfc.com ahead of kick-off at the Yankee Stadium. “We have decided the ones that have just been training – Alex, Flo, Ryan, even Jeremy – to leave them for the next game. I think they will all be involved against Leeds.”
Iraola outlines plans for Leeds friendly
Following the final whistle, Iraola elaborated on Liverpool’s plan for the quartet. “My idea is for Ryan [Gravenberch], for Florian [Wirtz], for Alex [Isak], for even Jeremy Jacquet to have their first minutes against Leeds,” he said. “We’ll see how many minutes they can play but we have to start slowly, slowly integrating more of the senior players that have had less training sessions. I think they should be ready on the weekend to have their first minutes.”
Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Alisson Becker will be reunited with their team-mates following the Reds’ return from the United States, with the Dutch pair pictured starting their own pre-season schedule at the AXA Training Centre earlier this week. Alexis Mac Allister and Victor Munoz will report back for pre-season at a later date, having contested the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain on July 19.
