How Iraola is moving Liverpool on from the Slot era

Andoni Iraola signed a two-year deal with Liverpool in the summer [Getty Images] Only 12 months ago Liverpool had won each of their first five Premier League games and were seemingly on their way to defending their crown under Arne Slot. That run started with victory over a Bournemouth side led by Andoni Iraola on the opening night of the season. Surely no one thought then that, come the end of the campaign, Iraola would be replacing Slot at Anfield. Such is the volatility of football, it is too early to pass judgement on Iraola - even if his Liverpool side are already six points worse off than they were at this stage last season. Under the 44-year-old, Liverpool are still unbeaten and this weekend Iraola returns to the place he called home for three years. It will certainly be an odd feeling when he enters the smaller away changing room at Bournemouth - the Cherries have had to renovate it to comply with Europa League regulations, so at least it will be a slightly more pleasant experience than it would have been previously. Iraola has swapped the seaside on the south coast for the beach town of Formby, where former Liverpool managers Jurgen Klopp and Brendan Rodgers also resided. By all accounts, he is settling in well. He has been spotted in the city centre on a few occasions and, as a keen cyclist, has enjoyed the coastal routes. But Iraola is most at home on the training ground. He is very much a 'six days a week' coach, according to those at Liverpool, and such is his passion for coaching that he is often the first on the training pitch, marking the cones out for sessions. "It's really intense. There's a lot of hard work and no sort of light days. Everyone's putting in 100%," said forward Lewis Koumas. Those at Liverpool are firmly of the belief that everyone associated with the club was glad to get last season out of the way and that even if Slot had remained as head coach, things were always going to feel better. At Liverpool's AXA Training Centre in Kirkby, Iraola rarely uses his own office and is often found in the coaches room where his assistants in Tommy Elphick, Shaun Cooper and Pablo de la Torre are based, and he has a relatively low-key presence in and around the building, compared to previous managers. De la Torre, who moved with Iraola from Rayo Vallecano to Bournemouth in 2023, is seen as a key pillar in ensuring that the players are all up to the physical standard that Iraola wants. In terms of actual changes inside the club they are not as big as people may think from the outside, given the structured nature of the head coach role. Iraola's appointment was based on his fine work at Bournemouth but he is very much learning on the job when it comes to dealing with Liverpool's congested schedule. There is a willingness to listen to other departments like the medical and fitness teams at Kirkby as the Reds seek to manage a squad that will play at least 49 games this season - a number that could climb into the 60s depending on Liverpool's cup runs. When it comes to the training schedule, Iraola tends to adapt it in line with the kick-off time for the following fixture, with late afternoon and early evening sessions increasingly common. Under Slot, Liverpool tended to train at a similar time each day. There have also been conversations with the academy and Rob Page, who coaches Liverpool Under-21s. "We have an understanding of how the first team play and key principles, like how we press, how he [Iraola] wants his number 10 to press, how he wants his number eight to press, how he wants his centre-backs to press - we mirror that absolutely," said Page. Earlier this week, Dominik Szoboszlai explained how Liverpool play with a number six, a number eight and a number 10 - and, despite calls for a defensive midfielder from fans during the transfer window, Iraola's system can work if everyone improves collectively. Iraola adapting to the club as much as the other way Iraola's preference is to name the team on the morning of the game and he saves the post-match debrief with his players for the day after the match. There is a sense of pragmatism with his media interactions, too, after a situation where his comments to LFC TV following a pre-season friendly against Monaco were widely reported. Iraola conceded Liverpool had run out of steam after 30 minutes and did not have the energy levels at the time to play with the intensity that he wants. It wasn't meant to be a dig at his players - rather an admittance that they were working on building that intensity up. But there is a realisation that at a club like Liverpool, every word you say can end up shared across social media and taken in a different way than you meant. That said, Iraola comes across as calm in his news conferences and open to discussion. It is very much a case of Iraola adapting to the club as much as the other way round. One of the main reasons they went for Iraola was his ability to develop young talent and the average age of Liverpool's players in the Premier League this season is 25.3 - only five teams have a lower average. Youngsters like Rio Ngumoha, 18, Trey Nyoni, 19, and Koumas, 20, all started against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup and all three will play bigger roles this season than last. Intensity is a buzzword under Iraola and that is a non-negotiable but he is already aware that, with such a brutal schedule, Liverpool will need to find ways to adapt and occasionally win games with a set-piece or an individual moment of brilliance. Going into this weekend, they have made the most sprints in the Premier League but looked flat against Fulham last weekend in a goalless draw, less than 72 hours after beating Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Sunday's game against Bournemouth will be a fourth in 12 days and, after the international break, Liverpool have a spell of four games in 10 days. Between 11 October and 7 November, they will play nine times. Iraola would no doubt have had a smile seeing Bournemouth win on their Europa League bow against Real Sociedad on Thursday, in the Basque region where he grew up. Perhaps he will have a moment on the flight down from Liverpool on Saturday to think about how far he has come. Liverpool haven't exactly had a dream start under Iraola but they are yet to lose. Becoming a team that is hard to beat is undoubtedly a step in the right direction after 12 league losses last term, but as vice-captain Alisson said last week, draws aren't good enough for Liverpool. And Iraola, who is unbeaten in the Premier League since January across his two clubs, knows that a win on familiar territory on Sunday would be the perfect way to head into the international break. Latest Liverpool news, analysis and fan views Ask about Liverpool - what do you want to know?