Iraola’s dynamic football will energise Liverpool despite worry over workload | Jonathan Wilson

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For Liverpool that became: do they have more chance of challenging for the league title next season under Arne Slot or Andoni Iraola? Certainly if Liverpool give away a lead in the first few weeks of the season, he should expect questions about that tendency.That’s why there must be a doubt.

That is an astonishing achievement.Iraola’s style of play would seem a good fit for Liverpool. The full-backs are attacking, as Bournemouth’s have been; for Milos Kerkez, who recovered towards the end of the season after a difficult start at Liverpool, this will be a reunion with Iraola, a coach to whom he felt so well disposed at Bournemouth that he celebrated an assist against Tottenham by running to the technical area to acknowledge his role in the goal.Bournemouth pressed so hard over Iraola’s three seasons in charge that no side had more shots after winning the ball back in the final third, which for Liverpool sounds like a return to something approaching a Jürgen Klopp-style gegenpressing after the restraint of Slot (although Liverpool were joint fourth in that metric over the same period).

Slot’s control was seen as positive in 2024-25 but, even if there is an argument for restraint given modern workloads, after the flatness of recent performances any semblance of the old energy will be welcomed.Iraola feels a good fit for Liverpool, as a club and a squad. But Liverpool represents a different challenge to anything Iraola has come up against so far – and that means there can be no guarantees.