This update reflects the picture on 17 September 2026. Liverpool are three games into Andoni Iraola’s spell as head coach in the Premier League, with two draws and a win to show for it. That solitary victory came away at Ipswich Town, where the Reds kept a clean sheet and scored twice. It has given Iraola his clearest opportunity yet to praise individual performers, and Milos Kerkez tops that list.
H2: September 2026 Update: Iraola’s Early Start at Liverpool
Three Premier League fixtures in, Iraola’s Liverpool record reads two draws and one win. It is an early, unfinished picture rather than a verdict on the new regime, but the away win at Ipswich Town stands out as the first clear marker of progress under the Basque coach.
Liverpool have also been busy elsewhere this month, following an earlier cup victory at Anfield. The league table remains the more telling measure of how Iraola’s ideas are landing, and the Ipswich result gave him his first real evidence to work with when discussing his players in public.
H2: Iraola Evaluates Kerkez’s Display Against Ipswich Town
Liverpool’s trip to Portman Road produced a clean sheet and two goals, a result that pleased Iraola across the pitch. Among those performances, he made a point of highlighting Kerkez’s contribution at left-back.
Speaking afterwards, Iraola was direct in his praise. “Milos played very well on Friday,” he said, singling out the full-back after a game in which Liverpool’s defence held firm and the attack found a way through twice on the road.
For a head coach still assembling his first Premier League impressions of the squad, that kind of specific credit carries weight. It marks Kerkez out as someone already delivering under the new setup, even three games into the job.
H2: How Iraola Views Milos Kerkez’s Role and Potential at Liverpool
Iraola’s relationship with Kerkez did not begin at Liverpool. The head coach gave the full-back his break in the Premier League at Bournemouth before the pair were reunited on Merseyside, and that history shapes how Iraola talks about him now.
“I know him very well and what he can achieve,” Iraola said. “He still has a big potential, being very young and with a good amount of experience in the Premier League and with the national team.”
That assessment blends familiarity with genuine belief. Iraola is not simply complimenting a player who impressed once at Ipswich; he is describing someone whose ceiling he has watched rise since their days together at Bournemouth, and whose current level he already trusts at the top end of English football.
H2: What Happens Next for Kerkez Under Iraola
Praise from Iraola has never come without a demand for more, and Kerkez is no exception. The head coach was clear that the Ipswich performance is a step, not a finished product.
“He needs to improve a lot of things like all the others; otherwise, there is no bigger step for him,” Iraola said. “I am ready to help him become a better player. He is in a good way.”
Those comments came as Iraola looked ahead to Liverpool’s next test in Europe, with the upcoming European coverage details outlining how supporters can follow the side’s continued progress this season. For now, the message from the head coach on Kerkez is consistent: real credit for what he has already shown, paired with a clear expectation that there is more to come. Fuller context from that press conference, including his early view of the wider squad, is available in the original coverage of Iraola’s comments.
Nothing in Iraola’s remarks points to changes in Kerkez’s role or any transfer business either way. The focus, for now, stays on development within the team Iraola is building at Liverpool, with Kerkez treated as a key part of that process rather than a finished article.
