Jamie Carragher has expressed one concern about Andoni Iraola heading into the Basque’s first season as Liverpool head coach.
The 44-year-old has replaced Arne Slot in the Anfield dugout, being awarded the job off the back of his excellent work at Bournemouth, who finished just one place and three points behind the Reds last term despite having a far inferior budget.
Iraola will embark upon his first Champions League campaign as a coach in a few weeks’ time, which brings with it eight midweek fixtures between September and January (plus any knockout phase involvement thereafter) and the challenges of balancing domestic and European commitments.
Speaking to Football Ramble, Carragher raised apprehensions about how the new Liverpool boss handles that balancing act when he’s never experienced it before.
The former Reds defender said: “In an ideal world, I would have loved Iraola to have had a couple of European campaigns, won a trophy, been involved in a cup final, but at the moment maybe those managers aren’t about.
“He will make mistakes because he’s not managed a European campaign. How does he rotate? Does he rotate in the 12:30 game on a Saturday after an away game on the Wednesday? Does he stay with the team? Does he come straight back after a game?
“These are all things I remember as a player that players will complain about to managers and staff, and if you’ve never really had that before, you’re still learning on the job and still learning those little details.”
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Iraola has managed in Europe previously, but that was with AEK Larnaca in the Europa League eight years ago, and the scrutiny which comes with coaching Liverpool in the Champions League will be far higher.
The Basque has already spoken about needing a deeper squad to contend with the demands of Premier League and European football this season, and the tight turnarounds between midweek and weekend fixtures will surely have a bearing on team selection and tactics, especially if lengthy air travel is involved.
The 44-year-old is renowned for favouring an intense, high-pressing brand of football, the physical demands of which will be difficult to maintain once the fixture calendar has the Reds playing three matches in seven days.
That will be a new challenge for Iraola, but Liverpool wouldn’t have hired him if they didn’t believe him capable of handling that effectively. Also, even the most successful managers in the game were once rookies who had to – taking Carragher’s phrasing – learn on the job.
We fully trust the LFC boss to handle the dual commitments of domestic and European football with competency and learn from any misjudgements which might occur along the way.
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“May ou live in interesting times” yes it is a curse, but also a blessing, I’d contend. It behoves us all to give Iraola our support and encouragement, with tolerance towards the odd and inevitable mistake as he learns on the job. We need him to succeed.
All managers, even the best make mistakes. At the moment rotation is going to be a problem because we don’t have the squad. High intensity football between premier league and champions league needs good players in every position and a good second string.
We are short on numbers and on proven quality. For Iraola to have chance he must tighten up the defence, especially from set pieces. If we conceding basic goals from set pieces ect the confidence will evaporate and he will be under enormous pressure.
It’s a results business if we see again what we saw last season he won’t be manager for long. Improve the defence or face the sack.
Seems to me FSG have a blind spot when it comes to defence, we’ve been left short in that area since their takeover. Hughes and Edwards are little better it would seem.
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