Liverpool have moved quickly after Arne Slot's departure, agreeing in principle to appoint Andoni Iraola as their new manager. Talks moved fast — the deal was effectively done within 48 hours. The Basque coach arrives at Anfield off the back of the best season of his managerial career.
Iraola took Bournemouth to sixth place in the 2025/26 Premier League season and, with it, UEFA Europa League qualification — a first in the club's history. He'd already told the south coast club in April that he was leaving. Given what he'd built there, the only question was which door would open next.
The man behind the tactics
Born in Usurbil in 1982, Iraola was a right-back in his playing days — combative, technically capable, and deeply rooted in Athletic Bilbao, where he spent 12 seasons and made 510 competitive appearances. He reached the Europa League final in 2011-12, was Copa del Rey runner-up three times, and finished his career in MLS with New York City FC before retiring in November 2016.
The coaching path that followed was built on overachieving with limited resources. AEK Larnaca in Cyprus, then CD Mirandes in Spain's second tier — where he knocked out Celta Vigo, Sevilla, and Villarreal in a Copa del Rey run to the semi-finals. Then Rayo Vallecano, where he won promotion to La Liga and kept them up. Leeds came calling in February 2023. Rayo didn't let him go.
Bournemouth got him instead, in June 2023, and the transformation was sharp. His side ended Manchester City's 32-game domestic unbeaten run in November 2024. On May 19, 2026, his team held Pep Guardiola's City to a 1-1 draw at the Vitality Stadium — a result that handed Arsenal the Premier League title. Not a bad way to close out a chapter.
What Liverpool are actually getting
Iraola's football isn't pretty-passing possession work. It's high-press, high-risk, vertical. His teams disrupt, recover quickly, and attack with urgency. The parallels with Jurgen Klopp's system at Liverpool are real — the relentless pressing structure, the willingness to accept defensive exposure in exchange for attacking momentum. Anfield has seen this kind of football before and responded to it.
- 510 appearances for Athletic Bilbao across 12 seasons as a player
- Copa del Rey semi-final with Mirandes, eliminating three La Liga clubs
- Promotion to La Liga with Rayo Vallecano
- Bournemouth's best-ever Europa League qualification in 2025/26
- Ended Man City's 32-game domestic unbeaten run in November 2024
At 43, Iraola is stepping into one of the most scrutinised jobs in European football. Liverpool's title odds will sharpen or soften depending on how quickly his system translates to a squad with far more quality than he's worked with before. That's the real unknown. He's consistently outperformed expectations with limited tools — the question now is what he does when the tools are actually good.
