Coming off the back of Liverpool FC’s 1-0 victory away at Bournemouth, where head coach Andoni Iraola made his return to Vitality Stadium, the place he called home for three years before making the move to Anfield.
Going into the game, Bournemouth were on an 18-game unbeaten run at home, much of it under Iraola’s charge, so naturally he would be the one to end it.
On a new episode of the Men in Blazers podcast, Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams spoke about the experience of playing against Iraola’s
team, and how eerie it was:
“It felt strange to say the least. It almost felt like a training exercise of some sort because the football that they play now and how he’s trying to transform that team felt like our training sessions 11v11 back in the day. When I first came to Bournemouth, we were kind of going through that transformation process of what he wants his team to look like, how he wants us to play, it feels like they are going through that process.”
“Obviously a good team but it was weird. It’s a process, you have to stick to the process. Every manager has their philosophies and knows when they have to change. What I love about Andoni is that he is adamant this is how he wants to play and it will work and it’s just a matter of time so it’s just going through that process, creating the habits, creating the process of what we want the games to look like. Eventually our fortunes changed and as everyone knows as everything clicked it clicked.”
The early returns are promising. Iraola has found a solution to Liverpool’s defensive woes, and we can build on it as the team continues to figure out its offensive identity. Keep the faith.
