Milos Kerkez has said Andoni Iraola is the "perfect fit" for Liverpool, drawing on two years working under the manager before his £40m move from Bournemouth last summer. Kerkez, a 22-year-old Serbian-born Hungary international, spoke to Daily Mail Sport in a rooftop bar in Chicago during the club's pre-season tour.
"I was delighted, honestly," Kerkez said of 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, I think he is the perfect fit for us," he said.
Iraola's intensity
Kerkez described Iraola's demands on the training ground. "It's the intensity. 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."
He also described Iraola's approach to man-management. "He is very professional. He likes to talk sometimes but not a lot. Maybe he doesn't want to get too close to some players and wants to show that everyone is the same in the team and doesn't want to get too close to anyone in particular. He keeps it professional with a lot of hard work."
The interview came after Kerkez had returned from a training session at the Chicago Fire headquarters, where Liverpool's squad trained in the Illinois heat. He has taken on a leadership role on the tour, with senior players Virgil van Dijk and Alisson not on the trip and Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate all having left the club.
Driving a truck at 10
Kerkez said his upbringing on the streets of Serbia shaped him, comparing his path to that of Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic, nicknamed "The Joker." He said he grew bored after just 10 days of summer holiday spent in Serbia, Spain and Montenegro.
"I grew up a bit different in Serbia," Kerkez said. "We grew up different. It's just your job, do your own damn job. For example, I started to drive a truck when I was 10 years old. I don't know if it's legal or not! It's just a bit different. We're more on the street. I don't know. I can say 10 other things that I did when I was younger... I won't. I gave you this example!"
His father, Sebastijan, operated the pedals while Kerkez, too small to reach them, sat on his lap and steered the truck along dirt tracks.
Family ties
Sebastijan now lives with Kerkez along with his mother, Tijana, and drives him to training most days. Kerkez's brother Marko, 26, plays for Aris in the Greek league, while his eldest brother, Rade, works in a chemical factory and got married this year.
An Instagram photo of Milos with Rade's bride led many to believe Milos himself had married. "Everyone gets this wrong!" he said. "It was my oldest brother. In Serbia it is normal for the younger brothers to take the bride to the church. That's what I did and now everyone thinks I got married. I keep having to explain to a lot of people that I never got married. It was my oldest brother, not me. I was going around the club and people started to congratulate me. I'm like, 'No, I'm not ready for this yet!' It was not me, it was Rade."
Kerkez also explained how his father came to know UFC fighter Paddy "The Baddy" Pimblett. "My dad met a friend, who is close with Paddy. Then my Dad met Paddy and I came and I met him. I follow UFC a lot. Nice guy... A Scouser. Crazy!"
"My family are very important. My brothers have their own lives now but my parents are with me and I am much happier they are with me, my mum and 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. They are very important."
Liverpool's Hungarian contingent
Dominik Szoboszlai captained Liverpool in their first pre-season friendly, while back-up goalkeeper Armin Pecsi has impressed team-mates with his composure on the ball, though he is set to be loaned out this season. Academy teenager Erik Farkas, born in Hungary but eligible to play for England, has also trained with the first team.
Kerkez said manager Arne Slot once joked he thought Mohamed Salah was Hungarian, given how much time he spent with Szoboszlai and Kerkez. "We speak often. I don't know who he is signing for! We just talk about vacations," Kerkez said of Szoboszlai.
Learning from Robertson and Salah
Kerkez said he has learned from Andy Robertson, the left back he succeeded at Liverpool. "Andy helped me a lot. Like I said many times, he's a legend. He did a lot of big things, won everything. He's someone I look up to. Obviously, I'm here. I want to make my own thing. We all know what Andy did for the club, I'm not running away from that. I want to make my own way. I'm going to work hard. I know what it means to play for Liverpool. I showed it a bit last year and I am going to show it more this year."
On Salah, he said he saw the striker's statistics on television before the squad left Liverpool's AXA training centre. "I saw on the TV before we left the AXA, how many goals and assists Mo had, it was 300 and something. I just walked out! What is this?! Time flies, a new generation comes with new players and hopefully everything will be good."
