Andoni Iraola, head coach of Liverpool FC, has said, his side must be “very ready” for the top flight encounter against Ipswich Town on Friday night.
The Spaniard made the statement in his reaction to the performance from Ipswich Town in the Premier League match against Manchester United last weekend.
The contest had Manchester United come from behind to win 5-2 at Old Trafford. Iraola said, the Tractor Boys kicked off their Premier League 2026/27 campaign “well” and performed “really well” against Michael Carrick’s Reds despite the loss.
Liverpool will travel to Ipswich for the Premier League match against Ipswich Town on Friday at 20:00 (WAT) at Portman Road, a 30,000-seater Stadium.
According to Liverpool official website, at his pre-match presser, the former AFC Bournemouth manager described Cody Gakpo, as a “smart player”, and said, he has an “honest” relationship with the Dutch forward.
On the money spent on the players, Iraola said, it is about “trust” in the players and helping them “perform”.
On his Liverpool not clinching a win since the new Premier League season started, the Reds boss admitted, he alongside his players are “frustrated”, however, expressed his focus on carting his first victory when his side collides with Ipswich Town on Friday.
At his pre-match press conference, Iraola said:
On Cody Gakpo…
“Cody’s a very smart player. I think also my relationship with him has been very honest since the beginning. He has performed with us, I would say, very well in all the pre-season games, in all of the games.
“I’m very happy to keep Cody because for me he’s a very valuable player.”
On expectations on attackers with the money spent overall…
“Yes, but I think we cannot put the price on the players, so we put pressure on the players to perform because they cost. We’ve seen the market and we’ve seen what the players have cost in this summer in other positions for other teams. It’s about trust [in] the players we have. Now we have to help them to perform and not just because they cost.”
On frustration about not winning a match so far…
“Yes, definitely. When you don’t win you are frustrated. That is part of the job. I think it’s still two games, but I want to win. I need to win and we will go with this aim tomorrow [at Ipswich].
“I think we have a lot of talent in this group of players and now we have to perform. We have to do our job and we have to start from tomorrow.”
On Ipswich Town…
“I think Ipswich has started well in terms of they won the first game at home and even the other day, you look at the result you can think, ‘OK, they were far from [Manchester] United’, but I think the first half probably they were the better team until United scored the 2-1 and the game went more open and they had to risk a little bit more.
“I think they were playing really well, so we have to be very ready and give our best to win our first game.”
On the squad…
“I’m very happy with all the signings we’ve made. I think [we made] three or four signings with Jeremy [Jacquet] and I’m happy with all the signings.”
Also, Iraola released update on injured players. Joe Gomez is expected to return to training with the team next week; Federico Chiesa suffered a muscle injury last month.
No period of time has been placed for the return of Conor Bradley and Hugo Ekitike.
Iraola said: “The closest one is Joe. Joe will probably start training with us next week and it has gone normally, the recovery, from a muscle injury, more or less we were expecting the time on this.
“I think even Fede should be around those dates and probably Conor, and especially Hugo, will go later, yes.”
