When Liverpool decided to part ways with Arne Slot and bring in Andoni Iraola as their new head coach, a lot of talk focused on style, tactics, and approach. Liverpool, it’s probably fair to say, did not play an enjoyable brand of football in 2025-26, and if the results aren’t there and the football is a slog the mood can quickly sour as it did for the Reds towards Slot’s end.
In his place, Iraola represents a return to a more aggressive style of football. It’s not a move without risk, though, with the
Basque manager never having managed a side in Europe and two games a week every week. Liverpool are by any measure a big step up for him, but former Newcastle striker and Premier League legend Alan Shearer thinks he’s more than earned the chance.
“First and foremost, he’s done an unbelievable job at Bournemouth,” Shearer told The Liverpool Offside when asked how he sees Iraola handling that step up. “When you consider the turnover of players, particularly last season where they sold four or five for an absolute fortune and had to replace them, for him to field and shape the team as he did and then to get better?
“I hate being disrespectful to other clubs, but he deserves a chance now at a bigger club. I mean, it’s one thing managing at Bournemouth, but it’s another thing managing one of, if not the biggest, clubs in the world in Liverpool. So it’s a huge step up for him, but I think he deserves a big chance and I think he’ll try and implement his style of football pretty quickly.”
Iraola first began to seriously consider coaching while playing under Marcelo Bielsa as captain of Atheltic Bilbao, and in three years at Bournemouth and three years before that at Rayo Vallecano in La Liga he has stayed true to a high-pressure, high-intensity approach. His sides attack opponents and seek to constantly ask questions of them both on and off the ball.
For a Liverpool side that often looked downright lethargic last season and a fanbase pining for a return to heavy metal football, that seems like a solid starting point. In the end, though, a more enjoyable and aggressive brand of football will only go so far—in the end, what will matter for Iraola will be the results, or at least clear signs of a side building towards something.
“At one point it didn’t look like that was going to happen because most of the noises coming out of Liverpool towards the end of the season were Arne Slot was going to stay and be given the chance to go again,” Shearer added. “And I do have a bit of sympathy, because it’s been a really difficult season, a really difficult time, not only for him but for the players and the club.
“It started off tragically in the pre-season, and it was always going to be very difficult to recover mentally from that. But I also think you know going into Liverpool that you have to play a certain style of football, and it’s also pretty simple in terms of you have to go in and you have to win trophies nearly every season. If you don’t, then your job will probably be on the line.
“So I would guess now [Iraola] understands that, and anyone going in there knows that, knows what heights he has to hit and what results he has to get. And yeah, it’s a really exciting time for him and I’ll really be interested to see how he can cope with it but I do think, because of what he did at Bournemouth and how he did it, that he deserves a big job.”
