{"id":478731,"date":"2026-06-02T06:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478731\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T06:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:47:22","slug":"andoni-iraola-looks-the-right-manager-to-help-liverpool-get-their-swagger-back-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478731\/","title":{"rendered":"Andoni Iraola looks the right manager to help Liverpool get their swagger back \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bravery. It is the recurring theme in conversations with those who have worked with Andoni Iraola<\/a> at close quarters, and the thing, they say, that sets him apart. It was evident in the manner his Bournemouth side illuminated the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Liverpool<\/a>\u2019s sporting director, Richard Hughes, has been here before. This time, though, rather than asking Iraola to replace Gary O\u2019Neil and inherit a team that scrambled to safety, the challenge is to recondition one of the biggest clubs on the planet and help them rediscover the swagger that made them champions.<\/p>\n

Arne Slot<\/a> ultimately paid the price for a meek title defence. Bournemouth simply did not know how to leave quietly under Iraola. Well, barring his first nine winless games in charge, a bruising start that these days is hard to comprehend. Iraola will be the first to recognise Liverpool are unlikely to be quite so forgiving if they have to wait three months to win a Premier League game next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been hell of a ride,\u201d Iraola said, addressing Bournemouth\u2019s fans after the club qualified for Europe for the first time. He alluded to that barren run, November fast approaching. \u201cWe didn\u2019t start well and, probably, you were thinking: \u2018Who the f*ck is this guy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy\u201d has established himself as arguably the hottest head coach on the market and is fresh from leading Bournemouth to another record-breaking season. Iraola\u2019s approach has been the envy of the rest of the Premier League for some time, his body of work across the past three seasons a triumph for coaching.<\/p>\n

Together with his staff, he has polished countless players, schooling them in aggression and recovery runs, elevating many into different footballing levels, none more so than Antoine Semenyo, who arrived from Bristol City as a raw talent. Marcos Senesi, available on a free this summer, is another example, while James Hill is the latest player to make others sit up and take note, not least staff at England.<\/p>\n

Hughes pushed Iraola\u2019s case at Bournemouth having watched his endearing Rayo Vallecano side excel after promotion to La Liga and then convinced him to put his imprint on a team that had just finished 15th, five points above the dotted line. \u201cThe first thing from the club was more than [about] the result but changing the style: changing the approach, being more offensive, more proactive, playing with no fear,\u201d Iraola said of Bournemouth\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

\"AA Bournemouth fans holds a sign directed at departing manager Andoni Iraola during their Premier League game away to Nottingham Forest in May. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA <\/p>\n

To that end, the 43-year-old appears to be the perfect candidate to restore the personality lacking at Liverpool in recent months. Bournemouth were superbly watchable under Iraola, who has long thought the best form of defence is attack. \u201cWhen 10 players are behind the ball, I don\u2019t feel very comfortable,\u201d he said at the end of his first season.<\/p>\n

Take their home win over Fulham last October. They trailed 1-0 on 78 minutes. At that point Iraola withdrew Senesi, a centre back, and Tyler Adams, a defensive midfielder, and introduced attack-minded players in Ryan Christie, another player transformed by Iraola, and Ben Gannon-Doak. Bournemouth levelled almost immediately and won 3-1.<\/p>\n

It was a similar story the previous week at Elland Road, where Eli Junior Kroupi rescued a point in second-half stoppage time. That night Bournemouth finished with two out-and-out defenders on the pitch. In his first season, they beat Luton 4-3 despite trailing 3-0 at half-time and in his second, at Everton, Bournemouth scored three goals after the 86th minute to win 3-2. \u201cWe put Dango [Ouattara] at left-back, but he was playing everywhere but left-back,\u201d Iraola said.<\/p>\n

A senior member of staff at Bournemouth says: \u201cAndoni\u2019s idea is to win every game \u2013 and that gives you a real platform and identity. The way he uses substitutions … very rarely has he not brought on almost every attacker at his disposal with enough time to affect a game. He wants freshness to keep the rhythm and tempo the same as when the match started. If he has players to bring on and keep the level high, it is the perfect scenario for him \u2013 you can never say he\u2019s not trying to win every game. Andoni\u2019s style lends itself to entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funnily enough, it was after a stoppage-time victory against Liverpool in January this year, in which they led 2-0 and won 3-2, when Iraola conceded his side had learned the art of picking their moments. \u201cNormally we go full gas from the beginning and try to go until the end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"AndoniAndoni Iraola with Bournemouth players at the City Ground after playing Nottingham Forest, his last game in charge. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA <\/p>\n

It is a message he relayed as Bournemouth went unbeaten across the second round of fixtures against teams, an achievement that gave him immense satisfaction and only enhanced his reputation. He told his players to value every point during a run of six draws in seven matches.<\/p>\n

A summer of change at Anfield is unlikely to bother Iraola, who, while frustrated privately, seamlessly absorbed the sales of more than \u00a3250 million of talent across last season. Bournemouth even avoided defeat after selling Semenyo to Manchester City in January, having allowed Illia Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez to depart for Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Liverpool respectively last summer. At the end of Iraola\u2019s first season, Dominic Solanke was sold for a then club record \u00a365 million fee. Now Iraola is accountable for the bigger valuations on the heads of Alex Scott, Kroupi and Rayan, all of whom have flourished this season.<\/p>\n

Iraola once made light of links to Real Madrid, suggesting he had little interest in massaging the egos of household names, but do not be fooled by his warm next-door-neighbour charm.<\/p>\n

After training, he enjoyed playing football trivia with his analysis staff and last season volunteered to run the line at his daughter\u2019s under-11s match in Dorset. He is fascinated by culture and travel, be it the Sandbanks ferry or the Shinkansen. But he is also intelligent, demanding and ruthless, days off for his squad at a premium.<\/p>\n

As a player, he lived elite standards across 16 years at an institution in Athletic Bilbao, his hometown club, before hanging up his boots alongside Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo at New York City FC.<\/p>\n

As a coach, the Basque\u2019s next step was never going to be dull. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bravery. It is the recurring theme in conversations with those who have worked with Andoni Iraola at close…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[36674,61,60,1547,1102,112],"class_list":["post-478731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-andoni-iraola","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-premier-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}