With Andoni Iraola set to join Liverpool, we spoke to a journalist who has followed the coach at Bournemouth to get a better idea of what to expect.
While we have all heard about Iraola’s exploits at Bournemouth, guiding them to their best-ever top-flight finishes over the past three season, but not many Reds will have watched the Iraola’s side in great detail.
To get a better picture of how the Basque coach will work and what he plans to implement, Sam Millne spoke to Bournemouth Daily Echo reporter Alex Smith, who has covered the Cherries home and away.
Why do Liverpool want Andoni Iraola?
He’s a manager whose stock is rising massively at the moment and I think a big part will be the style of play that will be attractive to Liverpool, going back to maybe the more heavy metal football of the Jurgen Klopp era.
That’s something that’s certainly caught their eyes and he’s one of the young, improving managers in the Premier League who have punched above their weight and are now looking to progress onto the next step in their career.
What style of attacking football does Iraola play?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, August 19, 2023: Bournemouth's manager Andoni Iraola during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and AFC Bournemouth at Anfield. Liverpool won 3-1. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
In and out of possession, they like to play with lots of energy and intensity – that’s a hallmark of the team.
He’ll tend to set up in a 4-2-3-1 with a No. 6 and a No. 8, and then the No. 10 role is quite important as well in his system in terms of creativity.
There’s a lot of emphasis on the No. 8 and the No. 10 in being quite creative roles in possession, but I guess the main sort of hallmark of the Bournemouth side is the press out of possession. That’s the thing that’s got him such good results with the team.
A lot of needing the striker and the winger, in particular, to really be pressing high.
They want to be winning the ball around the opposition box and creating chances in transition, and creating opportunities, and shooting opportunities from sort of nowhere basically. That’s been a real hallmark of his team.
How did Bournemouth build from the back?
BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND - Saturday, March 11, 2023: Bournemouth's Marcos Senesi during the FA Premier League match between AFC Bournemouth and Liverpool FC at the Vitality Stadium. Bournemouth won 1-0. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
There’s a lot of encouragement to the centre-backs as well to bring the ball forward, so quite a big part of this season’s picture has been Marcos Senesi in starting attacks from the back.
Him picking the ball up in their half, around halfway, and bringing the ball forward and finding those passes to split the defence and find the runs, so that’s been quite a major part of the system: having good ball-playing centre-backs allowed for the chances to be created.
They then need the more pacy wingers to be making runs in behind to be found by those centre-backs, but that’s been a big part and they do pass the ball around nicely.
A lot of it is built around intensity and pace. Obviously sometimes that, by necessity, isn’t in the game, but that then relies on having the centre backs with that passing ability to be able to find the strikers and the forwards when they’re making runs, and sometimes coming short and allowing other people to go long over the top.
Did Bournemouth play a high line?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Friday, August 15, 2025: Bournemouth's manager Andoni Iraola during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and AFC Bournemouth at Anfield. Liverpool won 4-2. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Definitely a high line often. There were a couple of times when they got caught out on that this season.
Sometimes he encourages the centre backs; they’re not necessarily rigid at the heart of defence. They can jump to players and press them.
Bournemouth haven’t been good at defending set-pieces. Should that be a concern?
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola gestures on the touchline during the Premier League match at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth. Picture date: Sunday May 3, 2026.
I think a lot of that was down to just the lack of height in the Bournemouth team. Iraola talked quite a lot about that this season, about how they just didn’t have tall players, so that was something that they had to sort of adapt around.
But they certainly got much better at that in the second half of the season. They were better defensively from set pieces and that was certainly an improvement that they were able to go from struggling.
They had some real problems particularly with long throws; they weren’t winning their headers and taller players weren’t getting up above them.
But that’s something I think is probably quite easily corrected by just having taller players, but he showed his adaptability and ability to make improvements even when they didn’t get, I don’t know, five 6’5″ players in the January window.
How do Iraola’s staff go about getting players fit enough to play his style?
BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND - Saturday, January 24, 2026: Bournemouth's manager Andoni Iraola celebrates after the FA Premier League match between Bournemouth AFC and Liverpool FC at Dean Court. Bournemouth won 3-2.(Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
I imagine there will probably be quite a bit of fitness work in pre-season, but he’ll have all of pre-season to do that.
It will be interesting to see if he brings across fitness coach Pablo de la Torre, who left at the same time, so he’s also a free agent on that side of things.
So if he comes, I’m sure he’s used to putting players through their paces and knows exactly what Iraola’s system needs.
How much influence has Iraola had on transfers?
LONDON, ENGLAND - Saturday, October 4, 2025: Liverpool's sporting director Richard Hughes before the FA Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC at Stamford Bridge. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
He’s been quite hands-off in terms of transfers. Obviously he’s involved in those conversations and things, but it’s been more Tiago Pinto who is president of football operations
Obviously he gets told and kept up to date, but certainly at Bournemouth he didn’t take that much of an active role in transfers.
Which Bournemouth players could he be interested in signing for Liverpool?
BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND - Friday, March 20, 2026: Bournemouth's Alex Scott during the FA Premier League match between AFC Bournemouth and Manchester United FC at Dean Court. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
I think the three players that Bournemouth know will be eyed up this summer are Alex Scott, Junior Kroupi and Rayan.
I’d be surprised if we didn’t see next month or two lots of newspaper stories coming out saying Liverpool are interested in one or multiple of those three in particular.
But from what I’ve been told, they’re very much not for sale from Bournemouth‘s point of view.
Rayan’s release clause doesn’t kick in until next summer and that’s €100 million. Alex Scott, they’re hoping to give a new contract to, and Junior Kroupi doesn’t have a release clause.
Any weaknesses to note?
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola applauds the fans after the Premier League match at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth. Picture date: Saturday January 24, 2026.
There have been occasions in his time when they have struggled against low-block sides.
Whenever you’d ask him about it, he would then turn around and say, ‘Yeah but we got results against other low block sides so it’s not a massive concern’.
I think that is certainly something that he’s improved on and I think this season he’s getting results against sides that sit a bit deeper.
A lot of the results in that middle run of the season, when they struggled to get wins, weren’t a case of not creating; it was a case of just not being able to finish.
I think maybe having that little bit more quality in the forwards will potentially help.
*Thanks again to Alex Smith for his time. You can follow him on social media here.*