Andoni Iraola has moved firmly into the position as frontrunner for the vacant Liverpool manager’s position, following the departure of Arne Slot on Saturday.
When Iraola strolled into the Bournemouth boardroom back in the summer of 2023, the men in suits, including now Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes, were quietly contented with the decision they had made.
As they spoke with the amiable Spaniard with a twinkling smile who they had just offered a two year contract to, things felt great. It made sense, an attacking brand of football with a high emphasis on work rate and cohesion was on the horizon, or at least that was the promise.
The players, however, were not convinced.
“I didn’t see it at the start, I’ll be honest I didn’t see it,” admitted Antoine Semenyo during an interview for All Out Football last month.
Andoni Iraola, the manager of Bournemouth shouts instructions. Premier League match, Liverpool v AFC Bournemouth at Anfield in Liverpool on Saturday 19th August 2023. this image may only be used for Editorial purposes. Editorial use only, license required for commercial use. No use in betting, games or a single club/league/player publications. pic by Chris Stading/Andrew Orchard sports photography/Alamy Live news Credit: Andrew Orchard sports photography/Alamy Live News
“Don’t get me wrong, when he came in he had his way of playing and it was very new to us. Like the way he structured the weeks, we didn’t really have any days off, nothing.
“So it’s very hard for a team to go from having Wednesday/Sunday off, to having no days off.
“We would play on Saturday, train on Sunday, and the players in the starting XI would do maybe the first 30, 40 minutes of the session so you’re hanging – your legs are gone.”
Iraola the standard-setter – no days off!
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)
Of course, it’s now widely known that Semenyo’s rise under Iraola would be exponential. The winger rapidly accelerated under the tutelage of the Spaniard to world class status and secured himself a mid-season move to Manchester City as a result.
But the early days? The early days under Iraola required every single player to buy in fully, no half commitments, or else the whole project risked falling apart.
“You’re doing the possession [drills] and you have to run around and you’re thinking ‘oh dear’, but it was very different at the start,” Semenyo added.
“The results weren’t going our way and the fans were saying he needs to be sacked and then I can’t remember who we beat, I think Burnley at home, and then just everything changed. Everyone slowly got used to the system and it just went up from there.
“It hasn’t changed, even now to this day, some of the boys are still complaining in the group chat ‘no day off this week again!’, but we set up against the big teams Man City, Arsenal, and it’s not like we stay in a mid-block, everyone is man for man.
“You run and you think, ‘we’re gonna get exposed here’ but once you adapt to it [it works].”
Consistency is king
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, February 14, 2026: Liverpool's Milos Kerkez during the FA Cup 4th Round match between Liverpool FC and Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
One of the most enterprising and fascinating aspects of Iraola’s football is its seemingly unwavering force in motion when fully applied. This is something Liverpool have badly lacked this season.
After a promising first campaign with the Cherries, Iraola saw several of his top performing stars plucked off and sold. Players he very much helped cultivated were snapped up by the highest bidder, one of which – Milos Kerkez – arriving at Anfield.
Dean Huijsen would join Real Madrid, Dango Outtara headed to Brentford, Ilya Zabarnyi to PSG. Of course, star man Semenyo would only complete another few months with the club before securing a big money move to City.
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)
Iraola would have been forgiven for immediately taking out the pen and scrawling furiously into the big book of excuses. But no, the philosophy was in motion.
Bournemouth would win three of their first five matches of the season, which included the frenetic 4-2 defeat on the opening day at Anfield, which very easily could have gone against a porous Liverpool side.
A stretch of poor results followed as the team adjusted to the absence of big names, but then things clicked. So much so that even in January, following the exit of leading goalscorer Semenyo, Bournemouth would simply not go on to lose.
The Cherries last tasted a Premier League defeat against eventual title winners Arsenal on January 3. Since then, an 18-game unbeaten streak materialised. Ten of these fixtures may have ended in draws, but Bournemouth became incredibly hard to beat.
Iraola has his system and he makes sure all personnel buy into it. From there on out, consistency is king. Stick to the principles and results will follow.
What brand of football does he play though?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, September 21, 2024: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot (L) shakes hands with AFC Bournemouth's manager Andoni Iraola after the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and AFC Bournemouth at Anfield. Liverpool won 3-0. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It’s already established that Iraola has the ability to get results, but his means of doing so certainly are not tedious. Within months on the south coast it was apparent that high-tempo, expansive football was coming.
The 43-year-old, who has completed eight seasons a manager, champions a form of the ‘hybrid press’, focussing on aggressive play and rapid turnover with the ball in short bursts.
It’s not the gegenpressing, full-bodied death cry of the Jurgen Klopp era, though many of the core principles do remain the same.
Iraola developed his style considerably while working under former Argentina and Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa at Athletic Club.
Iraola’s style seems very much suited to the Premier League and, importantly, has thrived at a time when England’s top flight has seemingly reverted back to its much more physical, set-piece orientated methodology of yesteryear.
The 2024-25 campaign, in which Slot won the title, is the only season on record in the Premier League (since 2006-07) that has seen more shots from fast breaks (1.79 per game) than this most recent season which has just ended (1.73).
This tells us that chances are getting fewer and far between, build-up is more calculated and physicality is reigning supreme. It’s been the undoing of Liverpool all season, from being frustrated by low blocks to being out-thought by opponents with the dead balls. Iraola’s Bournemouth however, in spite of all this, have still found a means to flourish.
A ‘modern day coach’
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)
Iraola has already received the praise of Pep Guardiola, who last year told the Premier League‘s official website: “Today, modern football is the way that Bournemouth play, that Newcastle play, Brighton play, Liverpool have always been like that.”
While some Liverpool fans will feel somewhat burnt by the manner of the end of Slot’s tenure, it’s important to note that there are indeed some similarities with Iraola and the departing Dutchman.
Both managers enjoy and encourage their teams having the ball. This is not to say Iraola wants his starting XI to milk and gently curate possession perhaps in the way Slot tended to, but there is an insistence that his team have the ball before deploying certain strategies, rather than stealing possession and marching on the counter.
As per Opta, since Iraola came to England, only Liverpool (148) and Chelsea (121) have had more shots from fast breaks in Premier League games than Bournemouth (119), who also rank fifth for goals from fast breaks, with 18.
It goes without saying, of course, that Liverpool and Chelsea are teams that generally see much more of the ball and have much greater resources at their disposal.
Now, at Anfield, all signs point to Iraola having a much greater weaponry with which to extract even more from his methods.