Q&AMilos Kerkez interview: Newcastle opener, second-season aims and Andoni Iraola's system

The left-back does not have to wait much longer now as Liverpool begin their 2026-27 campaign away at Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon.

It will have been 91 days since the Reds last took to the field in the top flight, and Kerkez had his sights set on the opening weekend early into his summer break.

The No.6 spoke to Liverpoolfc.com to preview the visit to St. James' Park – and you can read the interview below.

Milos, the competitive stuff is finally here. You've been waiting a long time for this – three months by the time Sunday comes. How excited are you?

Very excited. Obviously a long time since the Premier League was there. Pre-season is done and [it's] time to start the real work.

Was it a long summer for you? You unfortunately didn't have the World Cup and only had one friendly for Hungary shortly after the club season ended. At what point were you itching to get back?

I had five, six weeks – that's a long time. It's the first time that I had a break like this. I was enjoying it with family a lot but I was starting to train, like I said, two weeks already [and] I need to get in the gym, treadmill and all this stuff. So, after two, three weeks I would say I start to get back already to train.

Heading into your fourth Premier League season, what are your emotions? Excitement, nerves, even more motivated?

Obviously motivated to do the best, also do the best with the team. Hopefully [we] win something soon – that's what we play for. But I'm pretty calm for the fourth year.

What do you hope to achieve in your second season as a Liverpool player?

Just be as best as I can to help the team [in] something that we are competing for. We have four competitions we need to compete for and I want to do the best in all four, help the team. Hopefully at the end it pays off with something.

You know Andoni Iraola's system really well from your time at AFC Bournemouth, so how well do you think the team has adjusted to the system he's instilling here?

I think we are a lot better. Obviously it's a new coach, a new philosophy, you need some time. Luckily we had him since the beginning of the pre-season, so it was good for the guys and they had more time. I think the last two weeks I would say Monaco and then against Como was even better. I hope against Newcastle we will be even better and ready.

For any supporters who may have missed pre-season and may not know what to expect, what will we see now with Iraola in charge in terms of the playing style?

Totally different in terms of high press and front-footed football. We want to have the ball, so we need to press quick, need to take the ball fast away from the opponent and after that just play and keep the ball.

Newcastle away first up is quite the challenge and last season's game there was an absolute thriller, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was really good. Great atmosphere, it's a great stadium with great fans. We expect the first whistle at the beginning of the game that for sure it will [be] explosive in the first 10, 15 minutes. After that obviously we want to be calmer, keep the ball and we need to get the result.

There's been change all over the Premier League – particularly at Newcastle, so you might not know what to expect from them this season. Does that mean you just have to focus on yourselves even more?

Obviously we have to focus more on ourselves because it's new for the players, like you said, with the new manager and everything. I know how the manager works, what he wants, but the guys need some time and I think now we just need to focus on ourselves. Because if we do that, how he wants us to play, we are really, really dangerous.