It’s still three weeks before Liverpool are slated to begin their pre-season schedule but the hard work for those not at the World Cup has been going on for some time
Trey Nyoni and Jeremie Frimpong are two players who have been filmed in extra training (Photo by Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
It’s still three weeks before Liverpool are slated to begin their pre-season schedule – but the hard work for those not at the World Cup has been going on for some time.
It’s a new era at Anfield under Andoni Iraola and those inside the squad will no doubt have been listening intently when the former Bournemouth boss spoke of his players all being ‘like new signings’ to him earlier this month.
It’s a clean slate this summer, meaning everyone has the opportunity to catch Iraola’s eye. And for those senior players not at the World Cup, the next month or so is a huge chance to put down a marker.
So it’s no surprise to see the likes of Jeremie Frimpong, Harvey Elliott, Trey Nyoni and Stefan Bajcetic keeping themselves ticking over during warm-weather training.
Frimpong, whose maiden term on Merseyside was blighted by muscle injuries, was left out of the Netherlands’ World Cup squad as a result of his struggles under Arne Slot.
The versatile right-sided player has been out in Los Angeles, California, working with coach Nigus Kidane, the founder of the Golden Boot Academy, which specalises in individually-tailored performance plans for their clients.
Kidane’s firm has previously worked with Leon Bailey, of Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest’s Omari Hutchinson and Lyon and Belgium midfielder Orel Mangala.
It’s a particularly important period for Frimpong this summer. Liverpool are slated to fly out for their tour of the United States on July 20 and alongside Dominik Szoboszlai, Milos Kerkez and Curtis Jones, Frimpong will be one of the most senior players available to Iraola.
At a time when Conor Bradley is still on the comeback trail from his season-ending injury, sustained in a goalless draw with Arsenal in January, the space in the team is there for Frimpong, if he can convince he is suited to playing at full-back.
Under Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen, the former Celtic speedster was a wing-back and an integral cog in the side that won the Bundesliga title undefeated in the 2022/23 campaign. At Anfield, however, the question of where he is best suited only subsided when he was injured.
It’s why he has no doubt been keen to establish a fitness programme with a personal coach to arrive at the AXA Training Centre on day one of pre-season in fine fettle.
The same applies to Harvey Elliott, who enlisted the help of former Tottenham, Aston Villa and QPR man, Scott Chickelday, earlier this month to work on his shooting among other elements of his game.
Elliott may feel as though a year of his career was wasted during an ill-fated loan spell at Villa, where it quickly became apparent, following his transfer deadline day loan deal, that the club had no plans to trigger the £35m agreement by giving him 10 first-team appearances.
But after failing to break into the side under Arne Slot at Anfield, despite being a regular under previous boss Jurgen Klopp, Elliott has a second chance at his boyhood club and he is clearly determined to seize it.
How the versatile former Fulham youngster fares will be one of the subplots of the USA tour under Iraola, who has a reputation for developing young attacking players like Eli Junior Kroupi, Rayan and most notably Antoine Semenyo.
Trey Nyoni has also been using a portion of his summer break to keep in shape with a training camp in Morocco designed to ensure there are no cobwebs that will need blowing away at the Reds’ £50m training base next month.
It’s a critically important summer for Nyoni as he looks to take another big stride toward becoming a first-team regular at Liverpool.
If many are expecting Rio Ngumoha to truly take flight as a Liverpool star this coming campaign, Nyoni will want to prove he isn’t too far behind his fellow teenager as the England youth international gets further acclimated to the senior ranks. The former Leicester City teen doesn’t turn 19 until the end of June.
And surely the most intriguing of all the stories of the pre-season period where the Liverpool contingent is concerned is Stefan Bajcetic, who has been making use of the club’s facilities during June to help get fit after an injury-plagued period.
A video shot by Steven Halliwell, who filmed Mohamed Salah’s address when he announced his impending departure in March, was uploaded onto Bajcetic’s social accounts earlier this month with the caption: “Back on track”.
It was a development that whetted the appetite for those who still believe the former Celta Vigo youngster has a role to play at Liverpool, over three years on since he burst on to the scene in style under Jurgen Klopp.
His press-resistance and ball-playing qualities at the base of the midfield shone for a period as he looked to make good on the promise of potential, having initially arrived as a centre-back for the academy ranks aged 16.
However, the career-altering injury – an adductor tear in a 1-0 loss at Bournemouth in March 2023 – has been a debilitating one as far as Liverpool tenure goes. That game was his 19th as a Reds player and his tally now, over three years on, stands at just 22.
Loan spells with Red Bull Salzburg and Las Palmas brought mixed results and Bajcetic has quietly been working behind the scenes for some time at the AXA Training Centre, trying to put a nightmare few years behind him after a string of injury issues.
If Iraola has few of his big-hitters with him Stateside next month, he at least has a slew of hungry players ready to state their case for inclusion.
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