Andoni Iraola's Challenge at Liverpool: Balancing Styles and Fitness
Andoni Iraola knows exactly what he’s walked into at Liverpool – and he isn’t pretending otherwise.
The Spaniard needed 10 games to taste victory in the Premier League with Bournemouth. With Liverpool, he’ll at least have to wait for matchday two. His debut brought a chaotic 2-2 draw with Newcastle, a game that exposed both the physical and tactical hangover from the Arne Slot era.
Liverpool were outrun, ragged, and at times alarmingly open. The structure wobbled. The legs faded. And for a coach who has built his reputation on intensity and front-foot aggression, that combination will sting.
Caught Between Klopp and Slot
On Liverpool’s preseason tour in the United States, Iraola had already hinted at his concerns. He questioned the team’s “energy”, a pointed observation given the stylistic shift the club had just undergone under Slot. Now, speaking to Steven Gerrard for TNT Sports, he went a step further and put his finger on the deeper problem: identity.
Asked by Gerrard whether he felt closer in style to Jurgen Klopp or Arne Slot, Iraola didn’t hesitate.
“Probably closer to Jurgen, probably, I would say. But I loved a lot of the things that the team had with Arne also,” he replied.
That line matters. He isn’t here to torch what came before, but he is here to bend it towards something sharper, quicker, more direct.
“There has to be a balance,” Iraola said, reflecting on the Newcastle draw. “Things are going to evolve differently because the first game we had 60, 61 percent of possession straight away.
“Naturally, because the natural tendency of the players is towards that side, and I need to adapt also towards that side. ... But we also need to keep being vertical, keep attacking, keep taking sometimes some risks.”
That “natural tendency” is the crux of his early challenge.
The Slot Imprint That Won’t Fade Overnight
Under Slot, Liverpool were drilled to dominate the ball, squeeze the pitch, and patiently break down low blocks. The positional play was deliberate. The risk, controlled.
Against Newcastle, the imprint of that approach was obvious. Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Jeremie Frimpong, and Milos Kerkez often hovered high and wide, happy to operate near the attacking third when Liverpool had possession. It suited the old plan: keep opponents penned in, probe, recycle, probe again.
For Iraola, it’s a problem.
He wants speed. Directness. Runners. A team that snaps into transitions and drives forward with purpose, not one that lingers around the final third waiting for gaps to appear. When too many players stay high and Liverpool lose the ball, the pitch suddenly looks huge behind them.
And that’s where the real danger lies.
With a 35-year-old Virgil van Dijk marshalling the back line and Jeremy Jacquet still learning what it means to defend space at this level, leaving them exposed is asking for trouble. Newcastle didn’t need a second invitation. The gaps, the distances, the lack of cover – all of it showed in the two goals Liverpool conceded.
Those weren’t just defensive lapses. They were structural warnings.
Two Big Problems, One Clear Direction
Iraola has inherited two major issues from the Slot era: a team conditioned to slow, possession-heavy football, and a group that currently lacks the physical capacity to play his brand of relentless, vertical aggression for 90 minutes.
He’s been blunt about the second part for weeks.
After a preseason game against Leeds in early August, he didn’t dress it up.
“I think we played really good [in the] first half, especially the first 30 minutes, but right now probably we don't have much more in terms of the level required to play like this,” he admitted. “Then they were much better in the second half.
“The problem is right now probably they don't have the energy for 90 minutes and they start to get tired. It will take time with them, we need more training with them.”
Those comments sounded like standard preseason conditioning talk at the time. After the Newcastle game, they read more like a manifesto. He wants to push the tempo. The squad, as it stands, can only follow him part of the way.
So he finds himself in a delicate early-season balancing act: nudging a possession-first group towards a more vertical game, while also dragging their fitness up to a level where that style is sustainable.
Evolution, Not a Switch
None of this will flip overnight. Iraola knows it. The Newcastle draw was a reminder that stylistic transitions are messy, especially when the squad has spent a year learning a very different script.
The numbers – 60 to 61 percent possession – say one thing. The manager’s instincts say another. He will have to compromise with what the players naturally do, while gradually reshaping those habits.
There will be games where Liverpool look stuck between two ideas: too slow to be truly direct, too open to be truly dominant with the ball. There will be dropped points. There will be tense afternoons where Van Dijk and Jacquet are left to firefight in open grass.
But Iraola hasn’t shied away from that reality. He has already spelled it out: it will take time, more training, more work.
The question now is not whether Liverpool will change under him. They already are. It’s how quickly this squad can unlearn old rhythms, embrace the risk he craves, and find the balance he keeps talking about before the season’s demands start to bite.
