Milos Kerkez has admitted Liverpool are still learning how to handle Andoni Iraola\u2019s demanding style, with the defender saying the team cannot yet press for the full 90 minutes at the level the manager expects.<\/p>\n
After a month in which the same issues have remained in place, Liverpool finally recorded their first win of the season on Friday, taking the points at the third attempt with a 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town. Kerkez said the result did not hide the fact that the physical demands of Iraola\u2019s approach are still being worked through.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you press like us, it\u2019s a bit tough to do it for all the game and all the 90 minutes,\u201d he told club media . \u201cWe can do it for the first 30 to 35 minutes and in some ways we can do that in the second half at the beginning, but then it\u2019s all about staying compact and talking to each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we said also that we need to improve, and as defenders we are happy with the clean sheet. We defended pretty well their crosses and the set pieces. Like I said, everyone was 100% focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were clear signs on Friday that Liverpool are beginning to absorb Iraola\u2019s ideas. The performance featured intense running, two early goals from Alexander Isak and a Premier League-high sprint speed from Bradley Barcola in his first appearance off the bench.<\/p>\n
That said, the match also served as a reminder that the road ahead remains long. Ipswich may have been a useful starting point, but the standard of opposition is set to rise quickly.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s meeting with Atl\u00e9tico Madrid will provide the next test of whether Liverpool can turn those early signs into something more consistent. Kerkez\u2019s assessment was guarded but optimistic, suggesting the squad are starting to get to grips with the manager\u2019s expectations even if the full physical load is not yet in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kerkez says Liverpool are still adjusting to Iraola\u2019s pressing demands after their first win of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035,1742,175],"tags":[1836,180,182],"class_list":["post-19272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atletico-madrid","category-ipswich-town","category-liverpool","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19272","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=19272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}