"He's not scared to play one-on-one all over the pitch, to press high and to be on the front foot always." Milos Kerkez isn't selling Andoni Iraola to Liverpool fans — he's warning them. In the best possible way.
Speaking from Chicago during Liverpool's preseason tour, the 22-year-old left-back made clear why he thinks Iraola's arrival is the right medicine for a club that somehow stumbled to fifth place last season. Kerkez worked under the Spaniard for two years at Bournemouth. He knows the system, the demands, and the consequences — literally. Iraola runs a drill called "consequences" where the losing team runs. Nobody wants to find out how far.
What Iraola actually demands
"If you see footage of how we all are after training, all lying down, then you can see what he is preparing us for." Kerkez said it with a grin, but the message is serious. This is not a gentle reset. Liverpool's players are being rebuilt from the ground up in terms of fitness and defensive discipline.
The tactical philosophy Kerkez describes is built on a clear hierarchy: defend first, attack as a reward. Iraola told him at Bournemouth that defending was non-negotiable — everything forward was a bonus. That framework turned Kerkez into a £40 million player and earned him a spot in the 2025 PFA Team of the Season. Liverpool are now betting the same framework can do something similar for the whole squad.
For a team that looked shapeless and soft in the second half of last season, that structure matters more than any individual signing. Those tracking Liverpool's title odds should watch how quickly this system takes hold — a side that presses with Iraola's intensity is a very different defensive proposition than what Anfield witnessed in 25/26.
Moving past Robertson — on his own terms
Kerkez is also navigating the inevitable comparisons to Andy Robertson, the departing club legend who has since joined Tottenham. He's not running from it.
"We all know what Andy did for the club. I want to make my own way." Robertson helped him during their single season together — crossing technique, lung capacity, reading the game late in matches. Kerkez absorbed it, and now he's the uncontested starter at left-back for one of the world's biggest clubs at 22.
He also had to clear up one other misconception before any of this: he did not get married this summer. Those Instagram posts in a white suit? His brother Rade's wedding. In Serbia, younger brothers escort the bride to church. "I keep having to explain to a lot of people," he said, sounding genuinely exhausted by it. "I was going around the club and people started to congratulate me. I'm like: 'No, I'm not ready for this yet!'"
Football first. Everything else can wait.
