New Liverpool boss Iraola targets resilience after 20 defeats

Andoni Iraola has taken charge of Liverpool, replacing Arne Slot after a season that ended with a fifth-place Premier League finish. The club also lost a record 20 games across all competitions.

Iraola was the board’s primary candidate when they decided to sack Slot at the end of May. Liverpool contacted him during the first or second week after the season ended. He secured the role after stepping down from his three-year post at Bournemouth.

The new manager is currently in Chicago for Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the United States, a major element of the club's international public profile. The squad will face Sunderland in Nashville on Saturday. The tour includes subsequent matches against Wrexham in New York and Leeds United in Chicago.

Speaking to reporters, Iraola outlined his immediate priority. "For me now, it is about creating a very difficult team to beat," he said. He recognises that public patience is tied strictly to on-pitch returns: "At the end, people just want to see the team play well and deliver good results. I know this is 90% of my job."

Iraola’s approach is heavily informed by his 12 seasons as a player at Athletic Club, a Basque side restricted by policy to locally born or developed talent. Despite these constraints, the club has never been relegated, a testament to demanding maximum efficiency from the squad. "You have to maximise every player you have in the squad. You cannot sell him and choose another one a lot of times," Iraola noted.

While Liverpool specifically recruited Iraola to deliver an attacking brand of football and give supporters "a team to be proud of", he draws direct parallels between Athletic's model and his new employer. "I see a lot of things [similar to Liverpool]. This sense of belonging, of being a little bit different. This connection also, with players from the academy. The atmosphere of Anfield," he said. He acknowledged the comparison "probably isn't fair" given Liverpool is "one of the biggest clubs in the world".

Iraola’s appointment cements the outsized influence of Basque coaches in English football’s top tier, alongside Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery and Xabi Alonso. He attributes this regional success to a cultural emphasis on collective structure. He pointed to Rodri winning the World Cup's best player award without a goal or assist as proof that "team-first was always integrated in how we're raised".