CHICAGO -- Milos Kerkez was asleep when the news broke. Liverpool's decision to sack head coach Arne Slot less than a week after the conclusion of the team's disappointing 2025-26 season was a logical one -- and yet the immediacy of the Dutchman's exit still caught several players off guard.
"I was surprised," Kerkez told reporters, including ESPN, at Liverpool's preseason hotel in downtown Chicago. "I really didn't know. I was back in Serbia, I was sleeping and my brother woke me up. He knocked on my door and it was a big surprise. Nobody knew. I couldn't believe it, I was like: 'Wow.' I have been in touch with him since, and we have exchanged a few messages."
It was likely not the turn of events Kerkez envisaged when he joined Liverpool in a £40 million move from AFC Bournemouth last summer. He arrived just weeks after the Reds were crowned Premier League champions following a stunning first season under Slot's stewardship. For the defender and for the club, the past 12 months have been a challenging learning curve.
Liverpool ultimately clinched UEFA Champions League qualification on the final day last season by virtue of a fifth-place finish, while Kerkez recovered from a difficult start at Anfield to become one of the few positives in an otherwise miserable campaign. Still, there is a sense that the Hungary international is yet to unlock his full potential, which is why a reunion with former Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola -- who replaced Slot as Liverpool head coach last month -- is such an enticing prospect for him.
"I was delighted, honestly," Kerkez said of his reaction to Iraola's appointment. "I worked for him before, and he helped me and improved me a lot in the two years that I spent with him. I was really happy, obviously for myself but also for the team. Everyone knows what type of football he plays, so I think he is the perfect fit for us."
Indeed, it was Iraola's propensity for playing attractive, front-footed football at Bournemouth that saw him quickly become the favorite to replace Slot in the dugout. The Basque coach oversaw his first preseason game in charge of Liverpool -- a 4-2 victory over Sunderland -- in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday and, while the Reds are still a long way off being the finished article, the early signs were encouraging.
"It's the intensity," Kerkez said. "He's not scared to play one-on-one all over the pitch, to press high and to be on the front foot always. If you see footage of how we all are after training, all lying down, then you can see what he is preparing us for. You definitely need legs and good condition for what he wants us to do, but we will be alright.
"He's very professional. He likes to talk sometimes but not a lot. I think maybe he doesn't want to get too close to some players and wants to show that everyone is the same in the team, so he doesn't want to get too close to anyone in particular. He keeps it professional, with a lot of hard work."
The hard work started when Liverpool arrived in Chicago last week, with Iraola alternating between single and double training sessions to get his players up to speed ahead of the new season.
The new Reds boss famously oversaw an intense training regime at Bournemouth, and he is implementing many of the same techniques at his new club. That includes a game called "Consequences" -- a punishing running forfeit for the losing team in small-sided games.
The intensity is demanding, but that does not seem to faze Kerkez, who lives up to his billing as one of the jokers in Liverpool's squad during this in-depth conversation in Illinois. The 22-year-old notes he has spent much of the summer fielding messages of congratulations from friends and colleagues who wrongly assumed he had gotten married after he shared photographs of his brother Rade's wedding on social media.
The youngest of three -- his brother Marko is also a professional footballer for Greek side Aris FC -- Kerkez lives in England with his parents, Sebastijan and Tijani. Since moving to Merseyside, the family has struck up a close friendship with UFC fighter and Liverpool fan Paddy Pimblett, and the defender credits his dad with keeping him grounded as well as giving him daily lifts to training.
"They are very important," he said. "My brothers have their own lives now, but my parents are with me and I am much happier they are with me. My mum, my dad. He is here to smack me sometimes on the top of the head to remind me. Sometimes you play a few good games and you maybe start to get a bit carried away. But my dad is here to smack me, I come straight back down and I switch straight back on."
For all his light-heartedness, staff members at Liverpool's preseason training camp in the U.S. have noted how Kerkez -- alongside Hungary teammate Dominik Szoboszlai -- has taken on additional responsibility as one of the senior players on the tour. Under Iraola at Bournemouth, the left back earned a place in the PFA Team of the Year, and there is optimism that Iraola's arrival at Anfield could take Kerkez's game to the next level.
"He always told me that defending is really important -- for him, that is first of all -- and because you are a fullback you need to defend really hard," Kerkez said. "Everything you can do in front of you is like a bonus. So, I was always focused first on defending and then running forward to help the wingers.
"He showed me that when you do your job then you are free to do what you want, so I felt really free with him. We had a good team. It was obviously not me; we were playing really well as a team at that time. He lets you be more free to do your stuff."
Despite having improved significantly over the course of last season, Kerkez knows he still has critics to win over at Anfield. He is following in the footsteps of legendary left back Andy Robertson, who joined Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer last month and who Kerkez said helped him "a lot" during his first season at the club.
Born in Serbia, the defender is eligible to represent Hungary through his paternal grandmother, and he believes that his upbringing in the Balkans -- which, he reveals, included him learning to drive a truck at 10 years old -- has helped to give him a more measured outlook on the rigors of elite football.
"I don't like 'pressure' and that stuff," he said. "I grew up a bit different in Serbia. We grew up different. It's just your job. Do your own damn job. Obviously, it's tougher -- I saw when I arrived when you lose games and it's not going your way. Obviously, it's one of the biggest clubs in the world so you need to do well, but that comes with the job that we do."
The next test for Kerkez and Liverpool will come Wednesday, when they face Championship side Wrexham at Yankee Stadium in New York. From there, they will return to Chicago to take on Leeds United before playing two final friendlies against Monaco and Como at Anfield in preparation for the Iraola era beginning in earnest against Newcastle United in the Premier League next month.
"The guys are doing good," Kerkez said. "The first couple of sessions, they were getting used to it, but now they are getting better and better. I think the guys like how [Iraola] works. I like it, they like it. I think it is going to suit the team perfectly."
