Liverpool\u2019s final stop on their U.S. preseason tour ended badly, as Leeds United ran out 4-2 winners in Chicago at Soldier Field. It was only the second time since 2001 that Leeds have beaten the Merseyside club, and while the result will not count in the standings, it left Liverpool with several issues to examine before the campaign gathers pace.<\/p>\n
The most encouraging figure for Liverpool was Florian Wirtz. The German attacker, who had been under pressure after a difficult first season at Anfield and a disappointing summer with Germany, looked far more at ease in his first appearance of the new season. Used in the No. 10 role by Iraola, Wirtz settled quickly, linked play with confidence and finished the move for Liverpool\u2019s second goal after combining with Jeremie Frimpong. It was the sort of performance that suggested he may finally be finding his best level in a Liverpool shirt.<\/p>\n
Iraola will also take satisfaction from how Trey Nyoni performed. The 19-year-old helped build the move for Wirtz\u2019s goal with a smart lofted pass to Frimpong and once again showed composure in midfield. After strong displays earlier in the tour, he strengthened his case for more first-team involvement.<\/p>\n
The defensive side told a very different story. Ifeanyi Ndukwe looked uncertain against Leeds after previously impressing, while Mor Talla Ndiaye also struggled after coming on in the second half. Liverpool were punished twice from long throws, with the back line failing to deal with the aerial threat. That left questions over organisation, timing and defensive depth.<\/p>\n
Liverpool had looked set to finish their U.S. trip unbeaten, but instead they return home with a loss and a clear list of problems to address. The attack showed promise, yet the defensive structure was exposed in a way Iraola cannot ignore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wirtz impressed, Nyoni shone, but Liverpool’s long-ball defending was exposed in Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218","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=18218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}