Liverpool fans have been advised that Andoni Iraola is unlikely to deviate from his ‘aggressive’ style of play at Anfield, even if it can be ‘a little bit kamikaze’.
The Basque saw his reputation soar during a three-year spell at Bournemouth in which he took the Cherries to their highest ever finish of sixth in the top flight last season, all whilst remaining committed to a tactical blueprint of high intensity and rapid verticality.
That forward-thinking commitment has been in evidence during his early weeks with the Reds, who began the Premier League campaign with a 2-2 draw at Newcastle in which moments of attacking brilliance were offset by defensive frailties.
Iraola ‘won’t change his style of play’ at Liverpool
Bournemouth’s all-time appearance maker Steve Fletcher – who worked with Iraola at the Vitality Stadium – has backed the 44-year-old to succeed at Liverpool once the players fully commit to his enterprising brand of football and begin to deliver results on the pitch.
He told Flashscore: “He [Iraola] won’t change his style of play; I know what he’s like. He’ll play a certain way; he likes fast, attractive, aggressive football, and he’ll press from the front.
“You could call it a little bit kamikaze football at times, but he likes a bit of the chaos in the middle of the park, and he trusts his players to be 1v1 in certain situations. He’ll definitely entertain the crowds.
“Can he succeed? 100% he can. The players have got to buy into what he wants to do, and he needs to get off to a good start. If you get results, players believe in you; and when they believe in you, they play at their best.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Andoni or you’re a manager in League Two – you get off to a good start as a new manager, players buy into your philosophy, your way of playing, your ethos, and anything can happen from there.”
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Can Iraola get the balance right at Liverpool?
Having seen how Bournemouth played during their three years under Iraola, it comes as no surprise to us that Liverpool have been a lot more enterprising in his first few games at the helm than they had been under Arne Slot last season.
The Basque’s vertical, counterpressing approach is in marked contrast to the more measured style of football that the Dutchman preferred, with the Anfield crowd audibly tiring of the latter during a wretched 2025/26 campaign.
The current head coach’s tactics are reminiscent of the early part of Jurgen Klopp’s Merseyside tenure, with fans loving the all-action aspect but having valid misgivings over a lack of security in the Reds’ half of the pitch.
The German ultimately got the balance right during his 2018-2020 peak at Liverpool, although it took him three years to reach that sweet spot, and the team will likely be a work in progress in Iraola’s first few months in charge as well.
As fans, we’d like to see the Reds becoming more secure by signing a top-level defensive midfielder to close off the gaps in the middle of the park which have been glaring.
If Iraola can remain committed to his general tactical blueprint whilst making his team harder to play through and winning most weeks, we’ve no doubt that Kopites will very much take him to their hearts.
But it seems he does think he can get the whole midfield press at a same time. And he is wrong. They will never learn it. Those midfielders, never
Only place where Wirtz can play is a left winger.
Change the formation and wirtz has to learn how to play in the front 3. Left winger, right winger or false 9.
The early days klopp was kamikaze football, in the end klopp learned that without a world class keeper and a defensive spine to the team li wouldn’t win anything. Alisson replaced karius and mingolet, van dijk and fabinho were brought in to improve the defensive side of the team.
When we won the league under klopp we could grind out results, we three in the midfield who worked hard without the ball and with the attacking talent we had the perfect balance.
Go and look back at that premier league winning team and count the clean sheets and 1 nil wins.
Iraola isn’t at Bournemouth he’s at Liverpool, where teams will sit back and counter attack. He won’t last long until he sorts out the midfield and full back positions.
Defensive midfielder in the modern game is the most Important position on the pitch.
It’s why Spain won the world cup it’s why Barcelona and real Madrid wanted Rodri.
All the best Liverpool teams I’ve ever seen in 50 years always had at least one midfield player who could tackle and boss the midfield.
We don’t have that kind of player .
The defending against Newcastle was naive not kamikaze, Iraola doesn’t have the charisma that klopp had, Iraola won’t last long at Liverpool if we don’t get results, we wont get them with gravenberch and szoboszlai protecting the defence.
Liverpool manager’s, coaches who don’t sort out the defence don’t last long. It was the undoing of Rodgers and slot.
Klopp wouldn’t have won anything with Liverpool without Alisson van dijk and fabinho.
The spine of the team.
Wirtz needs to be dropped then sold.
Not good enough, too lightweight he weakens the midfield. Cut our losses mistakes were made last summer until we admit that we won’t get anywhere.
Wirtz doesn’t have the strength or pace to play on the wing.
Carragher is right, it was the worst transfer window ever in premier league history 445 million, most of it wasted on bad signings.
Why is Richard Hughes still in a job ? Sums up charlatan owners FSG who haven’t got a clue.