Pre-season is usually full of noise and very little certainty. A couple of friendlies, a lot of changes, plenty of tired legs, and fans trying to work out what matters and what does not. Still, when a new head coach arrives, the first thing worth watching is simple, who plays, how often, and for how long.
Liverpool have beaten Sunderland and Wrexham in Andoni Iraola's opening two matches, but for many supporters in the UK those kick-off times were awkward enough to make live viewing unrealistic. That does not mean there is nothing to learn. You can get a fair read on Iraola's early thinking by looking at the minutes. Managers tell you plenty with selection before they tell you anything in words.
Across 180 minutes of football, a few patterns are already visible. Some players are clearly under serious consideration. Others have been used sparingly, and that usually means exactly what it looks like.
Iraola has spread game time across the squad, which is what you would expect at this stage, especially with several senior internationals still absent. But even in that context, some names are standing out for the wrong reasons.
Harvey Davies and Josh Sonni-Lambie have each only been given 14 minutes. That is a very small audition. Joe Gomez , before injury limited him to 10 minutes, is the only player to feature less. That tells its own story.
Josh Abe and Will Wright have had a little more exposure, logging 67 and 72 minutes respectively, but the picture is not hard to read. They may well remain closer to the under-21 set-up than the first-team group once the serious work begins.
There are senior cases too. Freddie Woodman has played only 23 minutes, which is hardly a ringing endorsement at this stage. Federico Chiesa 's total would likely have been higher had fitness allowed him to feature against Wrexham, so his numbers need context, but the broader point remains, not everyone is being treated as equal.
That is normal under a new coach. It is also useful. Pre-season is less about slogans and more about sorting. Iraola appears to be doing exactly that.
There is another side to the numbers. Some established or near-established players are being handled carefully, rather than heavily used. That should not be mistaken for a lack of trust.
Curtis Jones , Milos Kerkez , Kostas Tsimikas , Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni have all effectively played two halves across the first two matches, finishing on 90 minutes apiece. Jeremie Frimpong has 94. That is enough to build rhythm, but not enough to suggest Iraola is interested in burning legs early.
Given the intensity usually associated with his training and match demands, this makes sense. He wants energy, running and repeat sprints. You do not get that in August by wrecking players in July.
There are younger names getting stronger looks. Mor Talla Ndiaye has 81 minutes, James McConnell 84, and Calvin Ramsay 85. Luke Chambers has reached 99, while Calum Scanlon is on 102. Those are not token appearances. Those are real opportunities.
It does not mean all of them will stay, and it certainly does not mean all of them will play meaningful minutes once the Premier League starts. But it does mean Iraola is giving himself enough evidence to make proper decisions, rather than relying on reputation or second-hand opinion.
The most interesting group are the players who sit high on the minute chart without being obvious guaranteed starters. That is where the real clues are.
Harvey Elliott has played 108 minutes, and so has Lewis Koumas. Both spent last season in situations that left questions around their immediate Liverpool future. Iraola said he wanted to assess players who had been away on loan, and in these two games he has done exactly that. There is now a far better chance of any call on their future being based on first-hand judgement.
Koumas in particular looks like a player under active consideration. He has been used enough to suggest genuine interest, not a courtesy look. At a time when Liverpool are still assessing options in the attacking line, that matters.
Kieran Morrison has also done his part. The Northern Ireland youngster has played 113 minutes and scored. More importantly, he has made himself difficult to ignore. Liverpool need more edge in the final third, particularly when thinking about the right side of the attack, and Morrison has at least put himself in the discussion.
That does not mean he is suddenly first choice. It means the coaching staff now have a problem worth having. In pre-season, for a young attacker, that counts as progress.
Dominik Szoboszlai is on 121 minutes, which says less about evaluation and more about continuity. Nobody at Liverpool needs a long look at him. He is a known quantity. Giorgi Mamardashvili has played 143 minutes, which was always likely with Alisson Becker unavailable. Again, no surprise there.
IMAGO
The clearest winner so far is Ifeanyi Ndukwe. He came on after Gomez went off early in the first match and then stayed on for the entirety of the second. Add it up and he has played 170 of a possible 180 minutes.
That is not accidental. You do not leave an 18-year-old on the pitch that long across your first two games as head coach unless you want a proper look, or unless you already like what you see. In truth, it is probably both.
Ndukwe has gone from being a background name to one of the main talking points of Liverpool's summer so far. The complication is his situation away from the pitch. If he still needs a loan move to satisfy UK work permit requirements, then Liverpool may be forced into a short-term decision that does not match Iraola's immediate preference.
Even so, the message from the selections is clear. Iraola has been impressed. The raw numbers say that louder than any interview could.
That is the value of pre-season, provided you look at it properly. Results are fine, fitness matters, and shape evolves. But the blunt truth is that minutes are often the cleanest clue. Right now, those clues suggest Lewis Koumas, Kieran Morrison and especially Ifeanyi Ndukwe are doing more than filling shirts. They are giving Liverpool's new head coach something serious to think about.
For all the uncertainty of summer football, that much already looks obvious.
