Full-back on being reunited with former manager, the shock of Arne Slot’s sacking and being mistaken for a bridegroom
It has been quite the summer for Milos Kerkez. There was time at home in Serbia, holidays in Montenegro and Spain, a frantic knock on his bedroom door one day to tell him that Arne Slot had been sacked, an unexpected reunion with Andoni Iraola shortly afterwards, and thousands of well-wishes sent his way after being photographed escorting a bride into church in his hometown of Vrbas. Congratulations on the wedding are also extended at the start of our interview on a rooftop terrace at Liverpool’s team hotel.
“No! This is wrong, everyone gets this wrong!” the full-back exclaims. “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. It was Rade, not me. There are three of us – Rade is the oldest, I’m the youngest and Marko is the middle one. I keep having to explain to people that I never got married. I was going around the club when we started back and people were congratulating me. I’m like: ‘No, I’m not ready for this yet!’”
Well, that’s one way of breaking the ice with an interviewee. Marriage is categorically not on the agenda for Kerkez, a humorous and engaging force of energy, but he is ready to embrace other responsibilities: notably stepping out of Andy Robertson’s shadow and stepping up at Liverpool. Early days, of course, but it has been noted during Liverpool’s pre-season training camp at Chicago Fire’s performance centre how the 22-year-old and his fellow Hungary international Dominik Szoboszlai have taken a leading role among a relatively young squad.
Kerkez – who was eligible to play for Hungary through his paternal grandparents – is in an advantageous position as the Iraola era begins with gruelling double training sessions and a pre-season friendly win over Sunderland in Nashville on Saturday. He knows the new boss better than any other Liverpool player, having matured into a £40m left-back during two seasons with Iraola at Bournemouth. He knows he doesn’t have to win over the new head coach as Iraola rates him highly. And he knows that, to convince Liverpool fans after a difficult debut season at Anfield, he is now working for a coach who can bring the best out of him.
“I was delighted, honestly,” says Kerkez on discovering Liverpool’s choice to replace Slot. “He helped me and improved me a lot in the two years 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.
“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. You definitely need legs and good condition for what he wants us to do, but we will be all right. When we play games with three or four teams he calls it ‘consequences’ and the losing team and the team that finishes second has to run. How much you have to run depends on what he decides in that moment, but there is always running for the team that loses.
“He’s intense and he likes details. 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.”
There were times last season when Kerkez appeared inhibited by Slot’s insistence on building from the back and full-backs coming inside. It was his pace and energy up and down the flank with Bournemouth that had attracted Liverpool and earned him a place in the Professional Footballers’ Association’s team of the year in 2024-25. He should be able to play to his strengths more often next season.
As he explains: “The gaffer likes to play more with the full-backs down the line, underlapping, overlapping. It worked well for me at Bournemouth, so I think it will also work well for me here. He always told me that defending is really important, for him that is first of all, and because you are a full-back you need to defend really hard. 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. He lets you be more free to do your stuff.”
Not that Kerkez blames Slot for last season’s turbulence, far from it. The pair remain in contact. “I was surprised,” he says of the Dutchman’s sacking, 12 months after delivering the Premier League title. “I really didn’t know. I was back in Serbia, I was sleeping and my brother woke me up. He knocks 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, we have exchanged a few messages.”
Kerkez admits last season was “tough for everyone” at Liverpool as every time the team seemed to have solved one problem, another would appear. As part of the expensive recruitment drive of last summer that failed to bear fruit – though Kerkez achieved far more than others – the scrutiny on the left-back and his fellow new signings was particularly intense. He insists he did not feel it.
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“Honestly, I don’t care about pressure,” maintains the full-back, who will face Wrexham in the second game of Liverpool’s US tour in New York on Wednesday. “I don’t like ‘pressure’ and that stuff. I grew up a bit different in Serbia. We grew up different. You could say maybe we are built a bit different. For example, I started to drive a truck when I was 10 years old.” Sorry? “It was with my dad,” Kerkez elaborates. “I climbed in and then I took the wheel. He was doing the pedals, I was only quite small so I couldn’t reach them.”
Kerkez’s father, Sebastijan, still drives his son to Liverpool’s training centre on occasions. He and Kerkez’s mother, Tijana, moved to England to help their second son settle into life as a Premier League player. “They are very important,” says the defender. “My brothers have their own lives now but my parents are with me and I am much happier they are with me. My dad is here to smack me sometimes on the top of the head and to remind me. Sometimes you play a few good games and maybe you 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.”
Another important influence on Kerkez has been Robertson, the man – and the Liverpool legend – he was bought to replace. The Scotland captain and now Tottenham left-back regularly took Kerkez aside last season to pass on his experience. But there was no big parting message when the time came for Robertson to say goodbye to Anfield in May.
“I didn’t want to get a lot on to him,” explains Kerkez, who became close friends with Mohamed Salah last season. “He was a bit emotional as everything was coming to an end. I didn’t want to get on to him too much, but throughout the year he helped me. We had a few conversations about crosses and about the big lungs we need to have so we can run until tomorrow. He did a lot of seasons, I should also have the same. We had conversations like that. Also, where to put the last ball, to focus, to put your head up and sometimes put better crosses in.
“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. Before we left the Axa [Liverpool’s training ground, to come to Chicago] I saw on TV a show about how many goals and assists Mo had, it was something like 380. I just walked out! ‘What is this?’ I was thinking. Time flies. A new generation comes and hopefully everything will be good.”
