Andoni Iraola found a fantastic solution to Liverpool's struggles as they smashed LASK. It was a brilliant move so soon into his career at Anfield.
Andoni Iraola joined Liverpool in the summer and things were not made easy for him. The Reds lost Mohamed Salah, Ibrahima Konate and Andy Robertson - leaders in the team as well as top players.
He inherited a squad that simply didn't work last season and then saw a misjudged summer. One where the signings didn't form a balanced group and it's been unclear from the start how he'd get this side ticking along.
Especially as his 4-2-3-1 system is awfully similar positionally to Arne Slot's. Of course, Iraola asks for different things but he essentially wants his players to occupy the same roles. And that's a problem, given how that shape simply didn't work last season.
Andoni Iraola shakes things up
Slot was many things at Liverpool but tactically flexible was not one of them. The Dutchman would tinker with subtleties but the Reds played that 4-2-3-1 system for all but about three fixtures under him.
Even when Slot claimed Liverpool were playing a diamond, it looked an awful lot like a 4-2-3-1. He went on to claim that the players had ‘played [his] system for their entire careers’ and simply couldn’t move to something new (Guardian).
Now, that was just bizarre. Unless Slot, for whatever reason, believes his 4-2-3-1 was the same as Jürgen Klopp’s 4-3-3 when it plainly wasn’t. In fact, we were calling for the switch back to Klopp’s single holding midfielder system as early as November last season.
That never arrived and Slot was ultimately sacked. Iraola, understandably, has started this season with his own version of the 4-2-3-1, given that’s typically how he’s set his teams up throughout his career.
But things changed on Wednesday at LASK. Iraola moved things towards that 4-3-3 system as Trey Nyoni spent most of the game operating as a sole holding midfielder. Ryan Gravenberch and Florian Wirtz were more like two centre-midfielders than anything else, operating ahead of Nyoni.
It was similar to the idea against Manchester City, though certainly a different sort of game. That one saw Alexis Mac Allister sitting, with Gravenberch and Wirtz playing advanced ahead of him. Though, this is a difficult one to judge as everything collapsed after the red card.
But it appears that Iraola is moving towards this 4-3-3. It’s a lot less static and affords more freedom for movement, particularly out of midfield, and certainly appears to be having a positive effect.
Liverpool thrived against LASK, scoring six times and playing free-flowing attacking football with space to drive into. So let’s keep that up.