Ahead of the clash against Chelsea at Anfield in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, Liverpool FC head coach has spoken about his relationship with former LFC man and fellow Basque native Xabi Alonso, who will be coaching Chelsea.
This comes amid a string of reunions for Iraola: last Tuesday, Villarreal brought former Rayo Vallecano assistant Inigo Perez, and on Sunday, close friend and ex-teammate Mikel Arteta will arrive with Arsenal. As several outlets noted when Iraola and Alonso took over their
teams in the summer, Iraola, Alonso, and Arteta were born seven months apart and were all teammates at the same amateur club, Antiguoko, in San Sebastian.
Iraola had this to say about Alonso:
“Everyone knows that we were close friends, we grew up together, we played in the same team. We played as football players against each other, we played together in the national team in Spain and with the Basque country.”
“But now he’s the opposition and we want to beat him – and the same way he will do with us. After the game, we can talk, definitely.”
“I said the other day with Inigo and it’s the same with Xabi, once we are playing against each other, the relationship is not good because you kind of stop talking to the other, kind of a respect thing.”
“But he’s a very good friend and I wish him all the best, definitely.”
Of course, many pundits and fans alike expected Alonso to be in the home dugout this season, but reports suggested the Liverpool hierarchy had no interest in the former Reds midfielder.
Iraola and the Reds have been in good form, with their only defeat of the season coming at the hands of Manchester City after they went down to ten men. The coach celebrated Liverpool’s first home league win of the season by approaching the Kop to celebrate and was given an ovation:
“I said it since the first day, you have to earn the right to belong and you only get it with good performances, with wins, and this will take time.”
“But I am glad because I felt the other day the supporters helped us a lot and they were enjoying it the same as we were and I think the players had a very likeable performance in terms of they gave everything, we were blocking everything, we were tackling, we were fighting, we were winning duels, we were making the runs in behind.”
“Those things you want to see and everyone wants to see. I enjoyed it, yes.”
Asked if he felt he had started to earn the respect of the Liverpool fans, he said:
“Start, yes. I would say start. Still we need more wins, we need more performances so we need more time.
“The more time we stay together, the more experiences we have together, the more comebacks, the more sometimes losses, the better you know each other and the easier it is to have references, to evolve.
“We want to do this process while we win games and that’s the secret. But now every game is a challenge, everything is costing us, but we have to keep going.”
On competing for the League Cup:
“I think every competition is an opportunity, especially when you are the coach of Liverpool,” said Iraola. “You have to take it like this.”
“I would love to win and have the chance to get further in the competition. But I know that we have to play very well, we have to beat a very good team.”
“It’s also a team that doesn’t play in Europe, so for sure for them this competition is also very important. So, it’s not going to be easy.”
Up the Reds.
