Iraola wants Mac Allister and Alisson to stay — and defenders to arrive

Andoni Iraola has made his position on two of Liverpool's senior internationals plain: he wants Alexis Mac Allister and Alisson at the club next season, and he would rather add players than lose them.

Mac Allister has two years remaining on the five-year deal he signed on arriving in 2023 and has yet to open talks over an extension, which has been enough to fuel speculation about a summer exit after a strong World Cup with Argentina.

“I think Alexis has been one of the best players at the club for the last few years, and he has had a very good World Cup, so it is normal that other clubs want our best players. But I want to keep my good players. I'm looking forward more to signing new players rather than losing the ones we have here.”

Alisson stays in the plans

Alisson, 33, has a year left on his contract and has been linked with Juventus. Iraola's answer was about more than shot-stopping — he framed the Brazilian as one of the few remaining reference points in a changing dressing room.

“Alisson is someone in a changing room that has lost some references in terms of experience. He's someone that definitely will help us in this process of adaptation of the new signings, the new players, the young players. We need the references like Virgil, like Alisson, like Joe Gomez.”

'Very thin' at the back

Where Iraola was less relaxed was defensive depth. Conor Bradley, out since a knee injury in January, is still months rather than weeks from returning, which leaves right-back as an obvious gap at the start of the campaign.

“We trust Conor in the long term, we know we want him to be our right-back, but right now he is still a little bit far from returning. With the centre-back, with the right-back situation, in terms of defensive depth, we are very thin right now, so it's a solution that we are trying to find.”

The message from Chicago was consistent throughout: keep the spine, reinforce the back line, and stop treating the summer as a sale.