When head coach Andoni Iraola signed on to manage Liverpool Football Club, the expectation was that his sides would be front-footed, they would be attacking, and that they would prefer a back-and-forth shootout of a match to a narrow 1-0 victory.
Which isn’t to say the Basque trainer doesn’t value clean sheets and control. Just that he’d always rather his side have the ball and try doing things with it, even if that might sometimes lead to a game being a little more open on balance. Tuesday against
Villareal was certainly that.
“It definitely hasn’t been a boring game,” he noted following what eventually ended up a 4-3 victory for the Reds, a match that saw his side go from trailing to comfortably winning to a little bit nervously holding. And one that very certainly wasn’t boring.
“I think they were much better than us for at least the first 30 minutes until making it 2-0, then we did much better than them in the second half until the fourth goal, probably. We probably started too relaxed in the game and even at the end at 4-2 we relaxed again.
“You think it’s done but they keep you there until the end because they are a very good team. I value the three points a lot because we were facing a really good team today and I know how good they are—that’s the reason why I give ivalue to this win.”
On balance, it was a match that showed both the best of Iraola’s growing Liverpool side—and also showed that they do remain a work in progress. Between Villarreal going up 2-0 and eventually making it a close 4-3 late, though, was a commendably dominant performance.
A pair of goals to end the first that drew the Reds level was followed by an utterly dominant second and two more just past the hour mark, but lapses in focus before early then again when they thought the game was won will give the manager plenty to work on.
“Against Villarreal, they are so good on the ball,” Iraola added. “If you look at the stats, after Barcelona they are the best at everything in La Liga. They have 61% of possession, their xG is through the roof. Probably they haven’t had the results they deserve for the performances.
“So if you are not really aggressive you won’t recover the ball, and until we matched up properly and took more risk we were struggling because it’s not a team that you can press a little. You must go full gas and you go all the way or you are going to struggle.
“That cost us probably until we felt under massive pressure 2-0 down. Then, okay, we have nothing to lose and we can play without the handbrake. From then I think was much better, physically we imposed our rhythm, and I think that made it difficult for them to cope.”
