Iraola answers the questions on every Liverpool fan’s lips

Andoni Iraola has shed light on his plans for Liverpool ahead of the new season.

The Reds turned to Iraola after sacking Arne Slot in May following a turbulent second year in charge, which resulted in a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Premier League and a trophyless campaign.

He has already added forward Víctor Munoz, defender Jeremy Jacquet and young prospects Samuel Martínez and Ifeanyi Ndukwe to the squad inherited from the Dutchman.

But speaking to the media after landing in the United States for a two-week pre-season tour, Liverpool’s new boss hinted more fresh faces were to come.

Iraola, 44, said: “You have to be always open to new options to improve the squad. There are obvious situations that we know where we need to sign players.

“A winger, for example — we definitely need to sign a winger. But there are other situations that we will have to analyse.

“We have some tricky positions where we have injured players that we trust but it is still not the ideal situation, so it will depend on a lot of things.”

With Conor Bradley recovering from a knee injury sustained in January, Iraola must decide whether to bring in cover at right-back.

He added: “If you have a fully fit, healthy Conor, we are very happy, ready to go and we would not be asking ourselves these questions.

“I think it’s a situation that is tricky, because we trust Conor in the long term. We know we want him to be our right-back but right now he is still, I would say, a little bit far from returning.

“So with the centre-back, with the right-back situation, in terms of defensive depth, we are very thin right now.”

Rene Nijhuis/BSR Agency/Getty Images

While talk of incomings has claimed the spotlight, there has also been speculation about potential outgoings.

But Iraola insists Argentina international Alexis Mac Allister is going nowhere. He said: "I think Alexis has been one of the best players at the club for the last few years.

“He has had a very good World Cup, so it is normal that other clubs want our best players.

"But I want to keep my good players. I'm looking forward more to signing new players rather than losing the ones we have here."

The former Bournemouth boss has also cooled talk of an exit for keeper Alisson Becker, who has just a year left on his contract at Anfield.

Iraola added: "I'm very happy with the situation we have right now in the goalkeeping area.

"Alisson is someone also in a changing room that has lost some references in terms of experience. I think he's someone that definitely will help us in this process of adaptation of the new signings, of the new players, the young players.

"We need the references like Virgil [van Dijk], like Alisson, like Joe Gomez, players that have been here for a long time."

Liverpool face Sunderland in Nashville on Saturday night before tackling Wrexham in New York next Thursday. They round off their time in the States against Leeds in Chicago on August 2 before returning to Merseyside.

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