Liverpool hired Andoni Iraola as manager on Thursday, turning to the former Bournemouth coach whose intense and heavy-pressing playing approach resembles the ideology that brought the team so much success under former Anfield favourite Jurgen Klopp.
Iraola replaced Arne Slot, who was fired by Liverpool last Saturday following a troubled second year in charge after emulating the likes of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte by winning the Premier League title in his first season.
That took Liverpool to a record-tying 20 English league championships.
Concerns about Liverpool’s style of play under Slot — the team lost 12 games in a disappointing title defence — were laid bare in a critical social-media post by departing superstar Mohamed Salah that called for the club to “go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear.” Tellingly, it was liked by a number of current Liverpool players.
In going for Iraola, who likes a hard-running and pressing approach previously favoured by the popular Klopp in his trophy-laden spell at Liverpool from 2015-2024, the club’s leadership appears to have taken Salah’s message on board.
The appointment — overseen by Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes, who was working at Bournemouth when Iraola was hired there in 2023 — doesn’t come without risk, though.
Iraola has never managed a club anywhere as big as Liverpool, with his only jobs before Bournemouth coming in brief spells in charge at AEK Larnaca in Cyprus and second-tier Mirandes in Spain before a three-year stint at Rayo Vallecano.
He also has never won a major trophy or had to balance the demands of elite domestic and European competitions.
However, Liverpool wanted a manager who would play a more “aggressive and urgent” style of football, and Iraola fits the bill, even if his off-field persona — unassuming, reserved — couldn’t be more different to that of the more outgoing and in-your-face Klopp.
(With inputs from The Associated Press)
Published on Jun 05, 2026
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