expected to see action<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWith Flo especially, I think we need a very good version of Florian,\u201d Iraola said when asked about his plans. \u201cWe know what he can give us; I think he\u2019s suited to our game model. I see him more probably in the position behind the striker, though we know he plays with Germany on the left sometimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think we\u2019re going to start with him in that position behind the striker. He\u2019s quite complete as a player. I think we are going to try to add more things to what he already has that is very good and I\u2019ve seen his first days of training he is in a good place mentally and I hope he starts well and strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the reasons Wirtz is being earmarked for the ten rather than being considered as a winger is that Iraola says he\u2019s also looking to have his wingers be positionally versatile and just as capable of lining up on either flank\u2014or of situationally swapping flanks during the course of any given match.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur wingers I normally try to encourage to have the ability to play both sides,\u201d Iraola noted. \u201cI know some of them are more comfortable on one side, but our team is not normally symmetrical so sometimes one winger has to do more defensive work, play higher, be more inside, be more outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you can give me the option to put you both sides, it\u2019s going to be easier for you to get minutes. Also, now in pre-season I have to see where they are more comfortable, but in my previous clubs most wingers play both sides. Then even during games we change a lot of times the sides of the winger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like now if we can have this versatility, for me it\u2019s a big help. I think it\u2019s also a great skill to have because in the end you become less predictable. I know most prefer one side, but maybe we want to exploit one match-up or can see a weakness for if you have the ability to play on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool have played their first two pre-season matches as they prepare for the 2026-27 season, their first under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[85641,403,99],"class_list":["post-794498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-liverpool-team-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}