Senior players at Liverpool are reportedly excited about the appointment of Andoni Iraola as their new head coach.
The 43-year-old was confirmed as Arne Slot’s successor at Anfield on Thursday evening, with the Spaniard having earned the job off the back of his excellent work at Bournemouth, who he led to a best-ever league finish of sixth in the top flight in 2025/26.
Cherries midfielder Tyler Adams has said that the Reds are ‘absolutely’ capable of winning the Premier League under his former boss next season, and his arrival on Merseyside already seems to be shifting the mood following a truly soul-destroying campaign.
A report for the The Athletic co-authored by James Pearce, Oliver Kay, Simon Hughes and James Horncastle highlighted how Iraola’s appointment has met with the approval of senior pros at Liverpool.
They wrote: ‘After so much negativity dragged down the mood in the Liverpool dressing room towards the end of Slot’s reign, sources close to a number of senior players say there’s a sense of excitement as a new era dawns.
‘They will embrace the prospect of a fresh start and an injection of positivity and new ideas. It is a clean slate for everyone.’
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New managerial/coaching appointments generally come with a sense of a fresh start and renewed optimism, the duration of which can vary greatly once the real on-field business starts, but there’s no doubt that getting Iraola on board has seemed to lift the mood of gloom for everyone associated with Liverpool.
The 2025/26 season was one of the most miserable that the Reds have endured in the Premier League era, and whilst obviously the spectre of Diogo Jota’s tragic death was inescapable, the regularity of poor results and flat performances sucked the life out of supporters as well as the team.
It was hard to envisage Slot being able to instigate a turnaround from such a low ebb, and when news of his sacking was confirmed last weekend, it felt as though the timing was right to make a clean break.
That Iraola was appointed just five days later has quickly given Liverpool fans and players an enormous boost, with any lingering uncertainty quickly put to bed so that we can instead look forward with fresh hope to life under the Spaniard.
Managing heightened expectations at Anfield will be a huge challenge for the 43-year-old, something that he has acknowledged, but if he’s immediately commanding the respect of senior players in the dressing room, that’s a very solid base from which to begin.
Let’s hope that the upward trajectory in which his tenure at Bournemouth finished is continued throughout his time with the Reds.
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We wish Iraola success at one the biggest clubs in Europe. No doubt the style of football will be more exciting. YNWA.
Liverpool were so bad last season that I would skip watching and only watch reruns on the condition that they won, which was not often. They were too slow, lethargic and so predictable and boring. Iraola must now come with something similar to Klopp’s style -there should be some urgency, and not too many touches.
From the same journalists who wrote last month the players were unanimously supporting Slot. The numbers of players leaving or not signing new contracts are telling the REAL strory, not the PR they have been doing for the last few months.
I give him my support and patience. Hope he doesnt let us down.
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