Liverpool FC Forum

Andoni Iraola has arrived on Merseyside ahead of becoming Liverpool head coach.
The former Bournemouth boss is expected to sign his contract later today.


I guess it’s official enough, its not like he will fail a medical. Still seems a bit surreal but we have a new manager.

After Guehi i'm not taking anything for granted 
I'll wait until its officially announced

As fans we have no say in who gets the job but one thing was clear in that the last lad had to go. I like the new guys approach and the bonus is you know what you will get as he has worked in the league for last 3 years..  We aren't interested in proven winning managers so who ever got the job would have to make a big jump up. I'd put Iraola ahead of a few of the other lads touted given his experience in the prem.

Welcome to Liverpool Andoni 

Thats a good point actually, this fella knows the culture of the game in this country, he knows the league, he knows the stadiums, the weather, opposition managers, opposition players, what the Christmas period is like.....only thing different will be he'll have more games to contend with but i thought both Rafa and Jurgen as great as they were took a little while to settle in premier league wise, both got to a European final in their first season but i thought they took a little while to get to grips with the hurly burley of the prem.

I'm cautiously optimistic, put it that way. I do think he's got more than a few players who might not like the intensity he demands and that's either going to be a very short term problem, or it could set the pattern for the season.
Careful how I say this also: the start of next season should be different in that - hopefully - the squad won't be mourning the loss of a teammate. So it should be start as you mean to go on.
I don't know where we're going to get the depth we need to compete on all fronts, unless he deliberately prioritises one or two competitions. I don't believe we have the depth, nor will there be a plethora of signings again this year.
So I'd love to see whatever money there is unearthing a couple of gems, like Kroupi, like Scott, and others who have the energy, the hunger, and the ability. Other clubs seem to find them, how can we not with the scouting team we have across the globe?
This guy seems humble, seems to demand hard work, has worked hard himself and just as important, knows from his own playing career that hard work 'works'.
It's up to him now to make a pretty lazy bunch work their ar$es off now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvjkEtxb1ks

Lol is like Rafa son, especially when he says Club. " I want to to be one of you" nice touch there gaffa.

Going to be an interesting journey, Hope it works out, main thing implementation of a style of playing and gradual progression.

Welcome to the club Andoni. I must say I'm not very optimistic about him but I'll put that negativity aside and hope for the best.

Apparently he insisted on a shorter contract (only 2 years), apparently wanting to prove that he's capable of managing a club of this magnitude before he signs a longer term deal.

Welcome to the greatest club in the world.

Have to admit that I’m a little underwhelmed by this appointment, but his style of football will be an important upgrade and he’ll need time to settle with his philosophy and back room team.

He’s hoping for a great new start under the new boss.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire!

Most people wanted Slot out but we have to accept the new manager needs time to settle in and rebuild the squad capable of playing his style of football. I remember when Klopp arrived saying I wouldn't judge the new manager until the end of the season and I'm going to apply the same rule. One thing's for sure, he has the goodwill of the fans.

First and foremost, he's going to change the style of play to fast pace football, pleasant to watch, exciting, pass and go, not the drab side to side crab ball Slot played.
The players need the time to adapt more than the manager and he'll need to plug some holes. CB, DM, RW to start with.

This season coming is a massive transtition season and we can only expect to be around the top 4 at the end of it, with a decent run in the cups. But first off the playing style has to be adopted and implemented.

Big season ahead, lets hope Iraola gets up and running, making progress from the off.

Welcome to the club

Andoni Iraola will face a "completely different" challenge at Liverpool - but after his "small scale" success on the south coast he is primed to bring his "magic" with him to Anfield.

That's the verdict of Sky Sports News reporter Mark McAdam, who has covered Iraola's rapid rise at Bournemouth first-hand.

'One of the biggest challenges in world football'

"I think he's ready but ultimately we don't we don't know how ready he is because everything is completely different," said McAdam.

"I walk into a Bournemouth press conference on a Friday and there will be four or five journalists there. He's going to walk into a Liverpool press conference and suddenly he's going to be faced with 25, 30, 40 journalists maybe even more on a Champions League night.

"The intensity, the scrutiny… he can drive in and out of the Bournemouth training ground and there's no one there that wants a signature. He goes into the Vitality Stadium and he'll do a couple of selfies. This isn't the case with Liverpool. There will be hundreds of fans that are clamouring to get that moment, to get that selfie, to get that autograph and the journalists will be asking the questions.

"He's going to feel like he is the central cog of that whole city whilst he's the head coach at the football club.

"It's going to be completely different. He's very down to earth, he's very humble he's quite a quiet, shy guy but is he ready and right for it? Yeah!

"I've been lucky enough to watch him at close quarters and be hugely impressed with what he's done on a small scale. The big question is can he translate that to one of the biggest challenges in world football."

'A different style of man-manager to Klopp'

As well as the enormity of the club, Iraola will also be working with high-profile players with different demands to some he may have experienced at Bournemouth. It will be a test of Iraola's man-management technique he has used so far.

"The personalities are going to be very different, the egos are going to be very different," said McAdam. "You're not walking into a dressing room filled with young players that have ambitions to play Champions League football or to get to bigger clubs - and that's the philosophy and the model of Bournemouth: buy young, buy as cheap as possible and then say, 'We'll give you the platform to develop you, improve you and then send you on to Liverpool, PSG, Real Madrid' as they have done recently.

"Now you're at a destination club. It doesn't really get much better than when you're at those big clubs because they're the ones that are expected to challenge in every single competition.

"So Iraola now has a very different mindset that he has to have.

"Interestingly with Iraola, he doesn't have individual relationships with players. He lets his coaching staff speak to players. He obviously speaks to them on the training pitch, he does his presentations but at Bournemouth Tommy Elphick, Shaun Cooper and Pablo de la Torre have the relationships with the players. They know what's going on with the players' wives, girlfriends, kids, families, what's happening off the pitch.

"They do all of that work and then feed into Iraola, he will assimilate that and work out what he wants to do but he doesn't have that relationship perhaps like Jurgen Klopp would. So he's a very different style of man manager and obviously it's completely worked at Bournemouth but again it's one of the many questions that will now be posed - can that style of management translate into a club like Liverpool where you've got players that have won the Premier League, you've got players that have competed in the Champions League, competed at the highest level for their national side?

"[The Liverpool players] are not someone that is on a little bit of money that's desperate for the chance to improve and develop. You've got someone that's already been there done it."

'Bottle of magic' - How Iraola can restore connection with fans

Iraola's style of play could also have an important impact off the pitch, too, rebuilding the connection between Liverpool supporters and their team.

By ramping up the excitement levels for supporters, Iraola can build a winning formula fuelled by passion in the Anfield stands and on the famous pitch.

"The biggest compliment I can pay Andoni Iraola is he made Bournemouth fans fall in love with the team," said McAdam. "They loved going to watch games at the Vitality Stadium. They saw the identity, they saw the philosophy and even at the beginning where things weren't going so well and results weren't there, they could see what was happening and they knew it just needed time.

"If Liverpool fans love going to Anfield, they are in love with their team, they love the style of football, they love what they're seeing, then they will go, 'OK, we can see what's going on here. We might need to give a little bit of time to go where we want to go in terms of winning nine out of 10 games and challenging for the Premier League, but I am starting to fall in love with this group of players and this philosophy'.

"That's what Iraola did at Bournemouth. He built a really clever group of players, he built bridges with the supporters and everyone just loved him. In the end, you've got Bournemouth fans going into games against Liverpool and Arsenal and Man City thinking, 'We'll win today and even if we don't, I know that we're going to be brilliant to watch'.

"If Iraola can bring that little bottle of magic that he had with Bournemouth and take it to Liverpool and create that atmosphere... then the rest will start to follow.

"And I do hate to compare it and mention Jurgen Klopp but that's exactly what Jurgen did when he arrived at Liverpool. That emotional connection is something that Liverpool fans have been missing, certainly this season because that emotional connection was missing between Liverpool fans and Arne Slot and that didn't necessarily help the atmosphere at Anfield."