Iraola may have just found Liverpool’s answer to Barcola vs Wrexham

Liverpool’s mainstays are dripping back into the running following staggered summer breaks, and Andoni Iraola will be starting to see a clearer picture of his squad ahead of the 2026/27 campaign.

On Wednesday evening GMT, Liverpool beat Wrexham 1-0 at Yankee Stadium in the United States, continuing their winning start to pre-season. It was an experimental line-up, peopled with youngsters and fringe stars who may play their football elsewhere in a month or so.

It’s important not to read too closely into pre-season – Liverpool lost three successive friendlies in 2019 ahead of their Premier League-winning campaign under Jurgen Klopp – but there are promising signs nonetheless.

REUTERS/Phil Noble

Iraola’s principles are distinguishable; he differs from Arne Slot. Fast, front-footed, fearless football is the order of the day for the Spaniard, and while it’s exciting, he still needs more quality.

That said, the right signings – such as Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola – could make a world of difference, with pre-season making a promising comment on the style of football Liverpool will play under Iraola.

Liverpool’s main talking points from pre-season

The Liverpool players over the pond consist largely of youth stars. Victor Munoz, who signed from Osasuna for £35.5m in June, is not around after winning the World Cup with Spain, while £60m centre-back signing Jeremy Jacquet is being eased into his new home after a shoulder injury sustained in February with Rennes.

Could Jacquet link up with countryman Barcola in the coming weeks? Barcola, 23, has agreed personal terms with Liverpool, who are engineering a formal package to bring him over from France, and this fast Iraola-ball style could be perfect for his direct, penetrative attacking edge.

With limited options, Liverpool are inching back toward a brand of playing that is identifiable within a title-challenging team. Rio Ngumoha, 17, has impressed over the pond thus far, bagging the winner as Liverpool beat Wrexham.

He’s a real talent, and someone who will challenge Barcola over the coming season, the coming years. His fleet-footed dribbling might even surpass that of the Les Bleus superstar.

Then there is Trey Nyoni. The teenage midfielder is a top talent, and no mistake. Sky Sports Analyst Pythagoras in Boots remarked that he was “more slippery than a bar of soap“, sliding his way around midfield, controlling play and tricky to dispossess. There’s a real player in there, and Iraola’s past experience in developing young ball-playing midfielders such as Bournemouth’s Alex Scott is surely a good omen.

It’s worth noting that Ngumoha was fielded on the right as Liverpool defeated Ryan Reynolds’ passion project. Should we read into that? Did Iraola simply unleash him in a mirrored role due to a lack of options? It was a convincing, if somewhat rusty, performance, and will have given the new head coach food for thought.

“I think being unpredictable off both sides is key,” Ngumoha said several weeks ago. He’s now putting that to the test.

Ngumoha and Nyoni weren’t the only up-and-comers to have caught the eye. With FSG’s suited officials working on a move for Barcola, another young Red issued an on-pitch statement, saying that Iraola may already have his own version at the club.

Iraola may have found Liverpool’s own Barcola

It’s crucial that Liverpool complete a statement signing for a forward like Barcola. Mohamed Salah no longer wears red, after all. However, Iraola knows that he has a potential superstar in Ngumoha, and the excitement doesn’t stop there.

Aged 16, Josh Abe made a strong impression when starting for Liverpool against Wrexham, playing the first 45 minutes down the right flank before being replaced by Ngumoha at the interval.

The youngster had been coveted by any number of elite English outfits before agreeing to a scholarship with Liverpool earlier this year. A pre-contract agreement is in place, a three-year deal to start when he turns 17 in July 2027.

This is one for the future, but Abe has the world at his feet. Already likened to Sadio Mane for his furious, electric-paced style, he made his unofficial debut this week, impressing.

Abe might have missed his big chance to put his name on the scoresheet, but we shouldn’t read too much into that. It would be easy to criticise the player for a bad miss, but how about the run, the link-up play with Harvey Elliott, a man with a point to prove.

Indeed, what about the confidence and the obvious physical qualities that will develop into something even more powerful as he sheds away his youth and grows into his senior skin in the coming years.

There is a certain Barcola-esque quality about him. The comparison to Mane hammers that point home. As Abe goes from strength to strength and latches onto the goalscoring potential that is clearly within his locker, such comparisons might even deepen.

Ngumoha might have scored where Abe missed, but both wingers demonstrated strength and potency down the right flank, with Abe perhaps even outdoing him in that regard.

While the left-footed attacker’s competitive opportunities this season will be limited – should he even make his senior debut – there’s no question that Liverpool have a Barcola-esque forward at their disposal.

REUTERS/Sam Navarro

Abe is possibly even more direct than Ngumoha. He cuts into the area at any given opportunity, whereas Ngumoha’s fast dribbling can take him in any number of directions. In that, Abe might be the next version of Barcola, who could take him under his wing over the next few years, should FSG get the deal done.