Iraola's Liverpool Rebuild: Young Defenders Jacquet and Ndukwe

Andoni Iraola has barely had time to settle into his new office at Kirkby, but two of the most intriguing pieces of his Liverpool rebuild are already waiting for him.

They were not his signings. They were Arne Slot’s parting shots.

Iraola walks into a different Liverpool

Unveiled on Thursday, five days after Slot’s dismissal, the former Bournemouth coach steps into a club stripped of three pillars: Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté. That is not a gentle introduction. That is a jolt.

The brief is clear. Restore Liverpool as a serious title force. Do it quickly. Do it while reshaping a defence that has lost its most imposing centre-back and its most reliable left-back.

Amid that upheaval, two January arrivals suddenly look far more than long-term projects.

Jeremy Jacquet and Ifeanyi Ndukwe are already through the door. Now they belong to Iraola.

Jacquet: £60m and straight into the spotlight

Jacquet cost Liverpool £60million from Rennes in January, a fee that underlined how aggressively the club had decided to move for him. At 20, he was already regarded as one of the standout young defenders in Europe. Then came shoulder surgery and a pause.

He is expected to be ready for pre-season, according to The Athletic. The timing could not be better for him, or more urgent for Liverpool.

Konaté’s departure rips a hole through the centre of the back line. What might have been a gentle integration for Jacquet now threatens to become a crash course in Premier League responsibility. The safety net has gone.

The Frenchman, though, never sounded like a player who came to hide.

Speaking to Ouest-France, he laid out the thinking behind his leap to Anfield. This was not a teenager dazzled by a badge. It was a calculated gamble.

"I won't say it was a quick one, because I took my time with this big step but I quickly saw myself at Liverpool," he said. "I'll be 21 in July. For me, there's the sporting project and the personal project.

"At my age, I prioritise the sporting side. I'm focused on football. My agent told me there were two choices: either go to a mid-table club or skip the step altogether. Initially, we were leaning towards a mid-table club.

"But then I told him, 'If the biggest clubs in Europe are interested, we're not going to turn them down. They're there for a reason.' I spoke with the management; the club's history weighed heavily on my decision, but so did the project they offered me.

"Promising young players command quite high prices and of course, that adds pressure: am I worth that price or not? I think I have the minimum resources to go there. I'm going there to play as much as possible."

The fee, the vacancy, the ambition in his own words – it all points in one direction. Jacquet is not here to sit behind the established names. Under Iraola, he may not have that option even if he wanted it.

Ndukwe: 6ft 6in and fast-tracked from the youth stage

Alongside him comes Ifeanyi Ndukwe, 18 years old and 6ft 6in, signed from Austria Vienna after a breakout Under-17 World Cup in which he helped drive Austria all the way to the final.

Liverpool beat a queue of clubs to his signature. That alone tells its own story.

This is not a token academy addition. It is another statement of the club’s intent to corner the market in Europe’s best teenagers, the same strategy that brought Trey Nyoni from Leicester City and Rio Ngumoha from Chelsea.

Ndukwe arrives as a prospect, not a starter. But prospects grow quickly when the pathway is clear, and Liverpool’s defensive reshuffle may open doors faster than expected.

A squad built for a coach who backs youth

If there is a manager suited to this moment, it is Iraola. His work at Rayo Vallecano and Bournemouth showed a coach unafraid to trust young players, to let them learn inside the chaos rather than on the fringes of it.

Now he inherits a club that has quietly rearmed its defence with raw talent before he has even made his first request in the transfer market.

The Spaniard did not need a hard sell when Liverpool came calling. Speaking to the club’s website, he captured the pull of the job in a few blunt lines.

"You don't need a lot of things to get attracted by Liverpool. Liverpool is Liverpool," he said. "But obviously the atmosphere, the supporters, the club, the players, the chance for me to coach top-level players, the chance to fight for titles. I think it cannot be more attractive than this. It's difficult to find it. So, really excited to start."

Titles. Top-level players. Pressure.

Jacquet and Ndukwe might have been signed under a different head coach, but they will grow – or fail – under Iraola’s eye. In a summer of departures and doubt, they offer something different: potential, height, pace, resale value, and, crucially, a chance to build a new defensive core from the ground up.

Liverpool have lost leaders. Now they must create new ones.

The question is no longer whether these young defenders will get their chance. It is how quickly they can turn that chance into authority in a team that expects to challenge for everything.