Ray Houghton has warned Liverpool fans that Andoni Iraola will need to be given time to get his coaching philosophy across to his new squad.
The Basque-born head coach replaced Arne Slot at the Anfield helm after a disappointing 2025/26 campaign.
The Merseysiders finished fifth in the Premier League, securing Champions League football thanks to England nailing down top spot in UEFA’s coefficient rankings.
We couldn’t have possibly asked more of Arne Slot in delivering a 20th English top-flight title at the first time of asking. A first league title, it should be noted, which could be properly celebrated in front of fans at Anfield.
However, there’s no question that the Dutchman’s ongoing tweaks to the setup, as Houghton points out, did little to maintain momentum going into the second campaign.
“It’s a very difficult question. When you think about it, Arne Slot comes in, takes over from a legend which was Jürgen Klopp, and he wins the league,” the 64-year-old spoke in association with Tonybet. Tonybet’s World Cup Card Collection campaign can see Irish customers win up to €100,000.
“A lot of people say it was Jürgen’s team. Yeah, it might be right, but Jürgen had nine seasons and won it once. He had a lot of near misses. He was up against one of the best sides in Man City at that particular time. One season it was 98, 97 points or something ridiculous like that. It was just incredible, the two of them going head to head over the seasons. It was brilliant to watch.
“In his first season, Liverpool played really well. You think about the exciting football, Trent with the balls over the top, Cody or Luis Diaz running, Mohamed Salah running in behind, God rest him, Jota making the runs, Darwin Nunez.
“Liverpool were an exciting team to watch because they played quickly, they played with width, they created opportunities and have a look at their goalscoring record in the first season. It was very, very good.
“Second season, Liverpool changed. Liverpool went from a dynamic team of playing forward quickly to a team that tried to play through the thirds and were playing slowly. It was easier for teams to play against them. They’d lost that dynamic passing, they’d lost their width, because they came in narrow.
“They brought in Wirtz and Wirtz didn’t want to play naturally wide. He wanted to play in a more central role, so they changed the system. They changed the way Liverpool played and it became difficult to watch because it was slow.
“Everyone had gone from Klopp’s hard rock football — get it, turn and run — and everyone was all rah, rah, rah. Arne had that in his first season. But first in your first year and fifth in your second year is not good enough.”
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The evidence on the table from Iraola’s time at Bournemouth suggests the 44-year-old is the ideal stylistic fit to bring aggressive, front-foot football back to L4.
However, after a season that effectively saw Liverpool backtrack significantly, it’s clear the manager has a lot of work to do to steer the ship back in the right direction.
Houghton went on to add on the subject of the ex-Cherries boss taking over: “He’s going to have to turn it around quickly and it’s a tough job. “He’s not going to have the players for quite a while. A lot of them are here in America, Mexico and Canada on international duty.
“Once they finish here, whatever stage they finish at, some might get to the final, some might get to the semis, some might get to third and fourth, you don’t know how far they’re going to go. They’re going to need time off afterwards. You’ve got to recuperate, you’ve got to get the lads fit and healthy again.
“When does he actually get his first true group of Liverpool first-team players together to work with them, to talk to them about his philosophy and how he wants them to play this season? One thing in a phone call, someone ringing you up and saying, ‘Hello, I’m your new manager, by the way I think you may not have done this or you may have done that last season,’ that’s not going to work. You need to see them daily in training and you’ve got to see them face to face.
“It’s going to take him a wee while, so I think the Liverpool fans are going to have to be very patient at the start. It might not be what you want straight away. You might have to wait a little while before everyone’s up to speed and the manager’s got his point of view and how he wants Liverpool to play across.”
If we’re to return to the kind of press-intensive football of the Jurgen Klopp years, numbers will be an absolute priority for our new head coach.
That’s the main concern we have around reports that Liverpool may end their spending in the offensive line if and when Yan Diomande’s signature is secured.
To put it bluntly: that would be a mistake of epic proportions. While we accept that the Ivorian would be our starting right winger next season, it’s unacceptable to put the burden of minutes on a 17-year-old in Rio Ngumoha and a 19-year-old in our prospective next signing. It likewise overlooks the rather alarming reality of Alexander Isak’s past injury concerns amid Hugo Ekitike’s extended stay in the treatment room.
If FSG accept that Liverpool needs to switch tack in style of play to something more familiar – which we can surely all agree on – then hamstringing the manager with a half-baked squad seems ill-advised.
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