Liverpool are hoping to appoint Andoni Iraola as their new manager - but need to make sure that he doesn’t have a mountain to climb at Anfield.
Timing, they say, is everything. If that’s the case, then Liverpool’s rather sudden decision to sack Arne Slot – who had been widely expected to get another year as head coach – was an exceptionally good one, given that it has afforded them the opportunity to begin talks with Andoni Iraola before he slipped out of their grasp.
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Andoni Iraola | AFP via Getty Images
Iraola was believed to be close to an agreement to take over at Bayer Leverkusen, but the Bournemouth manager, who had already announced his departure from Dean Court at the end of his contract this month, is now reportedly in advanced talks to take over at Anfield instead. Had Liverpool, who had already hesitated for long enough to miss out on Xabi Alonso, not made their move now, then a potentially perfect appointment would have passed them by.
Moving on from Slot appears to have a necessary decision, albeit one that Liverpool prevaricated on. Few managers come back from a loss of faith in the dressing room, and Mohamed Salah’s public airing of his displeasure at the Dutchman’s methods appears to have reflected a broader disquiet among the players. Iraola, meanwhile, should be the ideal replacement on paper – but why is he such a good fit for Liverpool, and just how much of an uphill battle does he face next season?
Why Andoni Iraola is a perfect fit for a Liverpool side that lost its heavy metal
In the wake of the rather dismal 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa which briefly threatened Liverpool’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League, the departing Salah took one last dig at Slot’s management, telling the press that the club needed to return to the “heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear.”
In Iraola, they seem set to appoint a manager who will very likely revive the Klopp-era tactics of relentless high pressing and swift attacking football which Salah craved. Iraola’s methods dovetail neatly with those which brought Liverpool so much joy prior to the 2025/26 season.
Even beyond playing style, Iraola’s CV already speaks for itself. He took Bournemouth into Europe on the back of an 18-match unbeaten run despite losing Antoine Semenyo in January and three quarters of a much-vaunted young back four last summer. Most teams would have crumbled after so many key players departed. Bournemouth only seemed to get stronger.
But the means by which he earned that success suggest that he should be a very strong fit for Liverpool’s squad, or at least those members of it that pre-date Slot’s appointment. If they want heavy metal football, they’re going to get it.
While many other teams have gradually eased off on the high press as teams adapted to its role in the game, Iraola’s Bournemouth doubled down. They were one of the most effective pressing teams in the game over the last year (they measured third in the top flight in passes allowed per defensive action, a measure of how little opportunity they offer the opposition to play a pass before they lose the ball) and attacked possession high upfield more frequently than most sides dared to. That should appeal to any other players in the squad who felt similarly to Salah about the direction of tactical travel under Slot.
Bournemouth were also the quickest team in the league in terms of the speed of their attacks, and they still have plenty of pace in the team – which should suit Iraola, a manager who prioritises quick passes forward and who makes perhaps the most aggressive use of full-backs in the league right now. It will certainly suit Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who were reined in by Slot despite having played their best football high up the pitch and attacking the opposing full-back as often as possible.
His proven ability to get the best out of young players and to swiftly work them into the first team could be crucial, too. With Ibrahima Konaté leaving, Liverpool may be relying on Jérémy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni at centre-back next season – both inexperienced, both returning from serious injuries, and with a combined one Liverpool appearance between them. Iraola made it work, spectacularly well, with Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi. He may need to repeat the trick.
He’s also one of few managers in the league who still prefers to use two strikers, which should help Liverpool to make sense of last summer’s decision to sign both Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitiké, although the latter will miss the first half of next season after rupturing his Achilles tendon. There are a few players who may be difficult to place in Iraola’s system – Florian Wirtz being the most obvious square peg in need of a round hole – but the broader overlap between Iraola’s ideas and the players likely to be at his disposal at Anfield is substantial.
Sacking Slot and (likely) appointing Iraola in his place isn’t a panicked reaction to dressing room discontent or an ill-considered move for a flashy young manager, but a sensible recognition of the need for change combined with an honest analysis of the kind of manager they need. Would they have persisted with Slot for another season had Iraola not been available? Perhaps. We’ll likely never know. But this is the decision of a club with a clear strategy – at least for the head coaching position. Whether they can get the fix the rest of their mistakes will determine how far Iraola can take them, however.
Iraola will only succeed at Anfield if Liverpool fix their recruitment
When Slot took over at the start of the 2024/25 season, they barely made a ripple in the transfer market. Slot responded with deliberate continuity, changing as little as possible and riding the wave started by Jürgen Klopp to a Premier League title. Things only went downhill when Liverpool decided to make a splash last summer.
Liverpool wound up making a common mistake – signing high-quality players without proper reference to their manager’s tactical vision or to the needs of the squad. The result was a side that became far less than the sum of its parts.
The club double-dipped up front at immense expense but failed to cover the obvious vacancy on the left wing which came about after Luis Díaz left for Bayern Munich and after the tragic death of Diogo Jota. They signed two flying wing-backs for a coach who wanted his wide defenders to operate in more conservative roles. They failed to acquire necessary depth at centre-back, although perhaps Leoni would have made a contribution had he not ruptured his ACL early on.
Iraola may be a better fit for the squad they have now built than Slot was, but there are still problems to solve, especially out wide – Iraola’s tactics place plenty of emphasis on attacking contributions from wide areas, and Liverpool now need new players on both flanks following Salah’s exit. If they don’t consider their purchases more carefully in those positions this summer, they may hamstring Iraola’s reign before it even begins.
Then there is the issue of an apparent lack of dressing room harmony following what Daily Telegraph journalist Dominic King described as the club’s “most toxic season in 16 years.” If the frustration was solely between Slot and his players, then it shouldn’t be a lingering issue – but if the behind-the-scenes problems also reflected issues within the squad, then it may be necessary to replace some of the more problematic malcontents in order to give Iraola the stable base of support he’ll need to thrive.
Difficult decisions will have to be made, and Liverpool will need to get them right to re-bridge the gap that has opened up between themselves and Arsenal and Manchester City at the top of the table. Iraola has provided plenty of evidence to support the theory that he’s the right man for the job – sporting director Richard Hughes, who was one of the men responsible for Iraola’s appointment at Bournemouth before joining Liverpool in 2024, still has to prove that he’s the right man for his job.
Slot lost the dressing room and allowed the tactical coherence of his side to drift in his second season, but he wasn’t the only reason that Liverpool faltered so badly after winning the Premier League a year ago. Iraola is very probably the right man for the job, but there is plenty of room for improvement and reflection elsewhere. Even the best manager can only do so much.
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