'Those days are gone' - Jamie Carragher sets out early Andoni Iraola challenge at Liverpool
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Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher discusses Andoni Iraola's appointment at Anfield and sets out an early challenge for the new bossJamie Carragher believes Andoni Iraola has to challenge for the Premier League title this coming season at Liverpool.And the Reds legend says he is excited by the brand of football former Bournemouth boss Iraola is going to bring to Anfield as he paid tribute to Arne Slot, who was sacked three weeks ago.Slot led Liverpool to a fifth-place finish, which secured Champions League qualification on the final day of the term but 20 defeats across all competitions saw the Dutchman relieved of his duties after an end-of-season review on May 30.Iraola, who led Bournemouth to sixth, was quickly installed as Slot's successor, penning a two-year deal after leaving the Vitality Stadium at the end of the campaign and Carragher, who won the 2005 Champions League during his 737-game career at Anfield, is optimistic about the new coach's chances of success."Listen, he's done an amazing job since he's come into the Premier League to Bournemouth and I don't think anyone doesn't watch them and isn't excited when they watch them," Carragher told Sky Sports at Royal Ascot this week."Or if I've got a game for Sky and it's Bournemouth, I think: 'OK, I'll look forward to that.' It's that all-action style, probably a little bit what we saw from England (against Croatia on Wednesday night), really aggressive, getting the ball forward really early."It's maybe a bit of a throwback to Jurgen Klopp's days at Liverpool and a slightly different style than Arne Slot."But as I say, I always want to say this with any Liverpool manager and yes, Arne Slot got a lot of criticism last season and I can't argue and I don't think he can too much with the change because it was so poor last season.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page"But we shouldn't forget: he won Liverpool the Premier League last season and I'll never forget that, so a big thank you to him.
And hopefully that's the goal [next season]."Can they challenge? Those days are gone from when I played when managers came in and it was like a four or five-year project to try and win the league or come close to winning the league.“Those days are gone and I said that when Arne Slot came in.
You know, Jurgen Klopp’s team finished third, you’ve got to go for the league and he won the league, and it’s the same with Iraola.“Liverpool finished fifth last season, nowhere near good enough.“So, I’m not expecting Liverpool to win the league next season, but we are Liverpool, we’re going to spend big in the summer, we’ve got a lot of great players and yeah, we’re gonna challenge.”Iraola will begin his Liverpool career in the Premier League with a visit to Newcastle United on Sunday, August 23.