Can Andoni Iraola make Liverpool Premier League title challengers again?

Andoni Iraola arrived at Anfield this summer with the task of rebuilding a title winning squad that collapsed to fifth place just a year after being crowned champions. It’s a rapid turnaround that few could have predicted 12 months ago. Anyone checking Premier League winner odds is watching the new head coach’s ideas take shape in only his second competitive fixture in charge.

Liverpool sacked Arne Slot at the end of May, just 12 months after he had delivered the league title in his first season, and moved quickly to appoint the man they had once considered as a replacement for Jurgen Klopp back in 2024.

From Bournemouth’s overachievers to Anfield

Iraola spent three seasons transforming Bournemouth from relegation candidates into a genuinely competitive Premier League side, culminating in a sixth-place finish and the club’s first ever European qualification. Before that, he took Rayo Vallecano from the Spanish second tier into an established La Liga side.

Liverpool were drawn to his record of overachieving relative to resources and his clear tactical identity, qualities they hope translate to a squad with considerably more talent at his disposal.

How his style differs from Arne Slot

Where Slot favoured a more measured, possession-based approach, Iraola’s teams are built around relentless, high intensity pressing. His Bournemouth side ranked among the division’s most aggressive out of possession, using a method sometimes called hybrid pressing, starting in a zonal shape before snapping into man to man marking once a trigger is spotted.

For those tracking football odds today across the Premier League, Iraola’s approach carries genuine risk as well as reward, since committing so many players to the press can leave space in behind if the opponent finds a way around the first wave.

The players suited to his system

Florian Wirtz, still settling into English football following his club record £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen, could prove an ideal fit for a system built on winning the ball high and attacking at speed, given his eye for a quick pass and his instinct for exploiting space the moment it opens up.

Iraola’s approach also demands full-backs willing to push high and support the width of the attack, along with central midfielders capable of both pressing aggressively and covering the space left behind them once the front players commit forward. How quickly the existing squad adapts to those specific physical and positional demands will likely determine how smoothly this transition goes.

Turning Anfield into a fortress again

Iraola’s Bournemouth teams thrived on directness, pace and pressing intensity, all qualities that tend to feed off a loud home crowd rather than being dampened by one. Anfield’s atmosphere has historically been one of Liverpool’s biggest assets, and a more front footed approach out of possession could restore some of the intimidation factor that seemed to fade during Slot’s difficult second season.

Turning that pressing identity into a genuine home advantage, rather than an occasional liability against the division’s better sides, is likely to be the clearest path back into title contention.

Whether Iraola can deliver the kind of sustained title challenge Liverpool are used to remains to be seen, but the appointment signals a clear change in direction after a campaign that unravelled far quicker than anyone at Anfield expected just a season removed from lifting the trophy.