Andoni Iraola has adopted a major change to Liverpool’s training schedule from their time under Arne Slot, instead taking a similar approach to Jurgen Klopp.
During Slot’s time in charge, Liverpool typically trained around the same time every day, with the Dutchman preferring a routine focused around midday sessions.
It was a departure from the methods established by Klopp, who adapted the training schedule depending on when a game would kick off the following day.
Iraola has a similar outlook, with Liverpool working at the AXA Training Centre on Tuesday evening ahead of their Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid.
Liverpool will begin training around 5pm, replicating a successful matchday-minus-one approach taken by Klopp and his staff.
“When he first came, one of the first things he changed [was when we trained],” Klopp’s captain Jordan Henderson told The High Performance Podcast in 2023.
“Normally up to that point our careers, all of us, we just trained in the morning. We’d come in for 9.30am, 10am and train for 11am, 11.30am, whatever.
“But we were training in afternoons, and times when we were playing a night game then we would train later on in the day.
“We wouldn’t train at 7.30pm but we’d train closer to that time, getting the body ready for playing at that sort of time, which actually when you think about it sort of makes sense.
“So we started training at 4pm or 5pm sometimes.”
Why Klopp’s training change upset the Liverpool squad
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, April 16, 2019: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp and James Milner (R) during a training session at Melwood Training Ground ahead of the UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final 2nd Leg match between FC Porto and Liverpool FC. (Pic by Laura Malkin/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, April 16, 2019: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp and James Milner (R) during a training session at Melwood Training Ground ahead of the UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final 2nd Leg match between FC Porto and Liverpool FC. (Pic by Laura Malkin/Propaganda)
Henderson went on to explain that it took time for the players to adjust, even leading him to approach the manager to request a return to earlier training sessions.
“As captain I felt like I needed to at least ask the question, so I thought I will at least have to go and speak to the gaffer,” he recalled.
“So I went up to him and said ‘a few of the lads are struggling with these late training times. They feel a bit tired. Is there any way that we could train in the morning?’.
“He sort of looked at me and said: ‘Who said that? Who’s moaning about it?’.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, October 23, 2018: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp during a training session at Melwood Training Ground ahead of the UEFA Champions League Group C match between Liverpool FC and FK Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade). (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, October 23, 2018: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp during a training session at Melwood Training Ground ahead of the UEFA Champions League Group C match between Liverpool FC and FK Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade). (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
“I thought to myself, I can’t be naming people here and chucking people under the bus. So I said: ‘There’s quite a few gaffer and that’s why I’ve come, because they think earlier training [would be better]’.
“He’s just gone, ‘well tell them, if anyone’s got an issue with training time, come and speak to me directly’.
“I thought, ‘oof OK, that’s the last time I go and ask anything like that again’. I walked out and told the lads ‘you’ve got no chance, but if you want it that badly, just go and speak to the gaffer yourself’. No one ever went up!”
Klopp’s methods proved hugely successful, not least in the Champions League where his side reached three finals, winning one, and the hope is that Iraola will enjoy similar results.
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PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - NOVEMBER 26: Julian Alvarez of Atletico de Madrid celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD5 match between AC Sparta Praha and Atletico de Madrid at Letna Stadium on November 26, 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic. (Photo by Gabriel Kuchta - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
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