Andoni Iraola seems to have understood the assignment at Liverpool from the get-go.
Build a connection with the fanbase, respect playing with emotion as a key facet of the club’s identity, and return the Reds to full-throttle football.
And if the Basque-born head coach needs a clearer reminder of expectations at L4, he’d be well-advised to pay close attention to a recent discussion between Pep Guardiola and Oasis’ Noel Gallagher.
Recapping a highly successful decade of football over on the blue half of Manchester, the pair couldn’t help but mention the challenge of facing off against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side.
“Those three years are what I think defines these last 10 years,” Gallagher said on City TV.
“To win this amount of trophies, and a third of them were won against that team. That team, whenever they got the ball, you were in trouble, constantly in trouble.”
Guardiola added: “The quality of opponent we faced in Liverpool… it was a nightmare. Every time, it was a nightmare.”
And who can blame them? At its apex, it’s a rivalry that yielded a record-breaking centenary season for the Sky Blues, while we recorded 99-point, 97-point and 92-point seasons.
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Premier League football may never reach such glorious heights again.
We’re not going to undermine Arne Slot’s achievements at Liverpool. After all, winning a Premier League title on your first go, with a squad you’ve inherited, is a remarkable achievement – and one that won’t be quickly matched.
That said, it would very much suit Liverpool to return to its roots of front-footed, in-your-face football moving forward.
A possession-heavy style didn’t seem to provide any answers for us this season as we struggled against sides that were perfectly happy to cede possession and watch us doing nothing on the ball.
There are still question marks over how an Iraola side will get over this obstacle, given Liverpool are still likely to dominate possession against most sides in the Premier League.
But a return to risk-taking on the ball will surely prove more advantageous to a side of this quality than Slot’s preference for patient play.
Only time will tell, but the point remains: we need to see a radical change in tack from last season.
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You have to remember that it took klopp four years to win the premier league . Klopp took over from Rodgers in October 2015. In his first full season klopp finished 4th 2017. We finished 4th again in 2018. Only in 2019 did klopp get Liverpool competitive at the top, 2019 we finished 2nd with 97 points. We then won the premier league in 2020 with 99 points .
Don’t expect miracles with Iraola too soon. What klopp achieved with Liverpool was working miracles. Spending 35 million a season, sell to buy, and brilliant attacking football. Against Manchester city and their billions.
You won’t see another manager like klopp at Liverpool for a long time. Only now he’s gone you begin to realise how great he was at Liverpool. FSG should have done everything to keep him. Sadly they didn’t.
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