Why Liverpool aren't concerned by Andoni Iraola's lack of silverware on CV

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For a club of Liverpool's size, does Andoni Iraola's lack of silverware represent a problem? One of their former defenders thinks not...One of the question marks around Liverpool's decision to appoint Andoni Iraola earlier this month was the lack of silverware on the incoming head coach's CV.Aside from a Cypriot Super Cup - a version of the Community Shield - won in 2018 during a spell with AEK Larnaca, Iraola has never guided any of his four previous teams down a silver-laden pathway.Jurgen Klopp, of course, was a two-time Bundesliga winner and also picked up a German Cup during his seven years at Borussia Dortmund.His successor, Arne Slot, arrived on Merseyside having previously won the Eredivisie with Feyenoord in 2023 before lifting a Dutch Cup the following year.Iraola however - aside from a 4-1 penalty shootout win over APOEL eight years ago - has never lifted a trophy in his coaching career.So, for a club of Liverpool's size, does this represent a problem?"'Success' can't be measured with same common denominator all the time," former Reds defender Glen Johnson tells the ECHO.

"You know, success at Manchester City and Liverpool and Arsenal, it's trophies."But if you're taking a club who have been in and out of the Premier League and only a mainstay for the last few years and then you take them to the brink of Champions League qualification - then that has to be considered a success in terms of the club's size."Since the 2016-17 season, five different coaches have won the Premier League in Antonio Conte (Chelsea), Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Klopp and Slot at Liverpool and current champion Mikel Arteta, with Arsenal. Only one of them have won it more than once in Guardiola.Klopp, to his eternal credit, would have had a far more extensive honours list in English football, had tallies of 97 and 92 not been bettered by a single point each time by some of finest sides in Premier League history under Guardiola.And while the back-to-back successes of Slot and Arteta have given a fresh feel to proceedings at the sharp end of the Premier League table, it is the departure of the legendary Guardiola at the Etihad that should really open up the chase going forward.There's a fresh feel to things this coming campaign with City, Liverpool, Chelsea and even Manchester United, to an extent, starting afresh with new faces in the dugout.Enzo Maresca is believed to be close to succeeding Guardiola and Xabi Alonso will take charge of Chelsea aiming to correct what has been a difficult period for the Londoners over the past season.Meanwhile, Michael Carrick will take charge of his first full season at United and Iraola is tasked with moving things forward at Anfield, after a painful campaign fraught with so many problems.Johnson, who made 200 appearances for the Reds between 2009 and 2014, says: "I'm initially upbeat.

So if he can get his team playing the way Bournemouth played, consistently, and you now do that with better players - no disrespect to Bournemouth, of course - but if you're doing that with a better group of players then, for me, that can only be a positive."Terming 'success' as simply the amount of trophies won can be a rudimentary measurement in the modern era, where super-clubs - often backed by impossible wealth - mostly hoard the pots at the end of the campaign.Only Crystal Palace and Leicester City have won the FA Cup outside of Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal in the last decade and Newcastle United bucked the same trend in 2025 for the League Cup.From the last 30 trophies on offer across the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup, only eight clubs have celebrated victory, with Palace, Leicester and Newcastle being the gate-crashers to a group dominated by City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man United and Chelsea.It's becoming increasingly clear that the biggest trophies are won by the 'biggest' clubs.So the calibration of 'success', particularly for clubs with smaller revenues, should be judged differently and that is the case at Liverpool, who poured over Iraola's achievements at Bournemouth with a fine tooth comb.The Reds were particularly impressed with his development of young forwards and his aggressive playing style. The Cherries finished one place behind the Reds in the Premier League last season.And with the smallest stadium in the Premier League at 12,357, Iraola worked a minor miracle last season, particularly given the club's willingness to trade in their best-performing stars like Dean Huijsen, Antoine Semenyo and Milos Kerkez, to name just three over the last 12 months."This idea of 'success' has to be judged on the club's possibilities at that time and what is realistic," Johnson says.