Rush The Kop

5 Liverpool academy players most likely to impress Andoni Iraola during pre-season

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Speaking at his unveiling press conference on Monday morning, Iraola recognised the need to integrate inexperienced academy graduates into his pre-season training camp.Andoni Iraola on using youngsters in pre-season"The first part of pre-season, it is going to be with a lot of players from the academy, players that in another situation, maybe I would not know as well, and now I will have the chance to get to know them personally, training every day with them, in some friendlies, and it is going to be good information for me."So, which lesser-known young players could force their way into Iraola's plans during pre-season? Note, we have excluded Rio Ngumoha from this list because, frankly, he's too good and should now be considered a first team figure, having made 29 appearances last season, as well as making his senior England debut against New Zealand in Tampa last month.



The 21 year old defensive midfielder has appeared 13 times for the Reds' first team to date, making his breakthrough under Jürgen Klopp and the German was certainly impressed by his talent, labelling him a "joy to watch". However, his spell in Amsterdam was prematurely cut short due to injury, so pre-season will be key as he seeks to rebuild sharpness and rhythm, but his talent is clear.

The 19 year old started last year's EFL Cup ties against Southampton and Crystal Palace, as well as seeing six brief cameos off the bench in the Premier League, so Arne Slot clearly rated him. This, this was obviously an excellent expirence for the 19 year old, so can he now take a step forward back at his club?