New Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola used his first press conference to make a clear appeal for transfer activity as the club prepares for a summer of rebuilding. Injuries and departures have left the squad stretched, and Iraola urged those above him to accelerate recruitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we\u2019ve signed two players already but we need more players, we know this,\u201d Iraola told the assembled media. \u201cThe club is working on this.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe as a coach, selfishly I want the players here from day one ready to train for preseason but understand football doesn\u2019t work like this. I know the club is working hard for those signings and I\u2019m trying to help also.\u201d<\/p>\n
The list of absences is significant. On the left, Andy Robertson has departed and center back Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 has also left. Jacquet\u2019s arrival goes some way to replacing the latter but a further defensive signing could still be required. On the right, Conor Bradley faces a significant injury and the club has been linked with Rayo Vallecano\u2019s Andrei Ra\u021biu as one possible option.<\/p>\n
Up front, Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 is unlikely to play again this calendar year because of an Achilles tendon injury, leaving a gap in attack. The departure of Mohamed Salah has created the clearest void in wide forward areas. Mu\u00f1oz will provide cover but the club is understood to be ready to invest heavily in a replacement, with Bradley Barcola and Yankuba Minteh among the names admired.<\/p>\n
Midfield could also change if Curtis Jones, in the final year of his contract, leaves amid interest from Inter Milan. Links with Felix Nmecha, Jo\u00e3o Gomes and Kh\u00e9phren Thuram have been reported as possible options to refresh the centre of the park.<\/p>\n
Iraola asked supporters for patience while recruitment and board-level decisions play out. \u201cI think we have to accept there are difficult situations right now in terms of both sides, a lot of senior players leaving, players who have achieved everything here and also some important players injured,\u201d he stressed. \u201cEkitik\u00e9, Bradley, [Giovanni] Leoni … long injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have to replace important players making good numbers and those three injuries that will miss some time, we have to find a way to replace them. These three, they are long-term solutions but there will be in this case a period where are without them, so we need solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responsibility for those solutions sits with the club\u2019s recruitment decision makers, where uncertainty over personnel adds another layer to a complex summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraola calls for reinforcements after injuries and departures, urging board to prioritise signings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[1084,1615,673],"class_list":["post-17188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-achilles-injury","tag-andoni-iraola","tag-bradley-barcola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}