05/06/2026

Read

iPaper at Malaysian Paper

www.thesun.my Free access to iPaper PDF Download

app from the App Store or Google Play TM . Malaysian Paper or download

SCAN ME

SCAN ME

FRIDAY | JUNE 5, 2026

Malaysian Paper

Heavy metal Iraola Former Bournemouth manager to address Liverpool's frailties and reconnect identity lost under Slot

Newly-appointed Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola. – REUTERSPIC

Ű BY RICHARD JOLLY

sequences would bring for Liverpool. His high-speed football requires time on the training ground: Bournemouth only played 40 games last season, Liverpool slogged their way through 57. The slowness of their football was not purely down to Slot, amid injuries and exhaus tion. European football may mean Iraola has to change. Iraola has shown a capacity to get forwards scoring, and if he is charged with doing likewise to Alexander Isak, first he has to get him moving; it is hard to press with a static centre-forward. He has displayed an ability to improve players – even after those who were sold, Adrien Truffert, Alex Scott, James Hill and Eli Junior Kroupi took sizeable strides forward last season – which could be welcome as too many of Liverpool’s regressed last year. He works well with young players, and much of the £500 million (RM2.6b) Liverpool have com mitted to signings in the last 12 months went on youthful figures, whether Florian Wirtz or Hugo Ekitike, Kerkez or Giorgi Mamardashvili, Giovanni Leoni or Jeremy Jacquet. The way Zabarnyi and Huijsen kicked on under Iraola may bode well for Liverpool’s young centre-backs. It means Iraola has ticked many a box, albeit without winning major silverware or managing a super club. They may still seem the biggest ele ments, but Liverpool can see Iraola as the out sider who can reconnect them with the identity they had and lost. – The Independent

Indeed, rewind to 2023 and Leeds, embroiled in a relegation battle they would ultimately lose, sacked Jesse Marsch and turned their attention to Iraola, then of Rayo Vallecano, and Slot, still at Feyenoord. Each had the sense to stay put. Iraola seemed a logical candidate: he had played for Marcelo Bielsa, a manager who transformed Leeds, at Athletic Bilbao. A bigger influence on Iraola, however, was Ernesto Valverde, who figured prominently in Liverpool’s thinking when they looked for a suc cessor to Slot. If the Basque Country can seem a heartland for progressive football thinking, Bournemouth may be a less likely one. That Iraola rebuilt Bournemouth in an uncomplaining fashion after sales and ended with a record unbeaten run despite being stripped of Semenyo, Illia Zabarnyi, Milos Kerkez and Dean Huijsen equips him for the role of the head coach, where Hughes and Michael Edwards take more responsibility for transfers; though it would help if they got more right this summer. But Liverpool, further up the food chain than Bournemouth, will need to sell less. Iraola’s arrival can still leave questions. He was transformative at Vallecano and Bournemouth, but neither is judged in terms of trophies. The Cherries could endure winless runs – their first nine games under Iraola, a spell of 11 last sea son – without the same kind of pressure such

Liverpool could give testament to the potency of Iraola’s attacking football; the opening game of the Premier League season brought a 4-2 victory for the defending champions, but only after a scare. Antoine Semenyo scored twice from lightning counterattacks, each offering evidence Liverpool were vulnerable to transitions. In the return game in January, Iraola illus trated that Slot’s revival was not built on the firm est of foundations. Liverpool arrived in Dorset unbeaten in 13 games but departed defeated, 3-2. Amine Adli’s injury-time winner came into two categories that damned Slot’s Liverpool: late concessions and set-piece goals. So, having highlighted some frailties, Iraola will be charged with addressing them. Slot was the continuity candidate who initially prospered with Klopp’s players, but his football became less Klopp-like. Meanwhile, football shifted in a way that meant Slot, from a contemporary figure, suddenly appeared a man out of time, bemoaning the more physical game but struggling to come up with an answer to it. Iraola can seem at the vanguard of a move ment, as Klopp did. His style of play could explain why Liverpool showed little interest in Xabi Alonso. That Bayer Leverkusen, where Alonso com pleted an unbeaten season in the Bundesliga, had wanted Iraola shows how they can be interlinked.

I F it was Andoni Iraola’s excellence that took him to Liverpool, he and they almost had cause to rue it. Bournemouth ended the sea son on the charge, unbeaten in 18 League games. Liverpool finished it on the slide, taking just two points from their last four matches, winning only three in 10. Had the campaign gone on for another couple of weeks, Bournemouth would probably have leapfrogged Liverpool. And if that would have rendered Arne Slot’s dismissal more of a formality, it would have denied Iraola Champions League football at Anfield next season, assuming a man who has verbally agreed to take the job does so. As it is, the sight of Liverpool and Bournemouth side by side in the table showed they were respective underachievers and over achievers. Just as they were opposites, Iraola looked a natural antidote to Slot. When Liverpool decided they wanted more front-foot, urgent and aggressive football, they might have been writing a job description for their preferred candidate. Bournemouth had the most shots from fast breaks last season. They pressed high and effec tively. When Mohamed Salah called for a return to the heavy metal football Jurgen Klopp pur veyed, in an implied criticism of Slot, he might have been imagining Iraola’s Bournemouth.

theSun is published and printed by Sun Media Corporation Sdn Bhd (221220-K) of Lot 6, Jalan 51/217, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03-7784 6688 • Tel (Editorial): 03-7784 6688 Fax: 03-7785 2625 Email: newsdesk@thesundaily.com • Tel (Advertising): 03-7784 8888 Email: advertise@thesundaily.com