Andoni Iraola already appears to be making a significant mark on his Liverpool side, judging by the testimony from one Sunderland player who came up against the Reds on Saturday.
The Basque’s first match as LFC head coach ended in a 4-2 victory over the Black Cats in Nashville, with the Merseysiders triumphing despite still being without many of their first-team regulars who are either injured or not yet back from their World Cup involvement.
The 44-year-old has taken over from Arne Slot in the Anfield dugout, and according to Dan Ballard, there’s already a notable difference in styles between the new boss and his predecessor.
Speaking about Iraola’s immediate imprint on Liverpool, the Sunderland defender told The Redmen TV: “I think there were a lot of differences [from last season]. The new gaffer sets the team up in the press very differently and he is very intense in the way he wants his teams to play, so we did a lot of work looking at Bournemouth‘s team last year.
“They’re very aggressive in the press, they play very vertically, and they go straight for goal, which is a little bit different to Slot’s team, [which was] a little bit more possession-based.
“They gave us a little bit more time on the ball last year, which we were quite surprised at playing [against] Liverpool, knowing them throughout the years. I think there’s a little tweak there.”
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It’s striking that Ballard has noticed such a clear difference between the Reds under Slot and under Iraola already, even with the latter having only overseen one match (a friendly) and not yet working with his full squad.
The direct, high-pressing approach that we witnessed on Saturday was markedly different from how ponderous and passive Liverpool so often were with the Dutchman in charge last season (as Jermaine Pennant opined), and it made for a refreshing change.
That isn’t disrespecting what Slot achieved at Anfield (we’ll be forever grateful for the 2024/25 Premier League triumph), but it was clear towards the end of last term that his style of play had gone stale and was all too easy for opponents to overcome.
Once Iraola has all of his big-name players back ahead of the new season, we can expect to see more of the intense pressing and vertical distribution which was on show from the Reds in Nashville and was also a feature of his time at Bournemouth, as verified by Antoine Semenyo.
The mantra about the best style of play being a winning style is true, and results will dictate how the Basque’s reign is judged, but there are some very early signs that Liverpool will be a far more daunting proposition for opponents in 2026/27 than they had been over the past 12 months.
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