"I've experienced the goal that Chiesa scored in the first game of the past season, where you can feel this stadium — and I would love to have this every game we play." That's Andoni Iraola, in his first press conference as Liverpool head coach, reaching back to a night he spent on the wrong side of Anfield to explain exactly what he wants to build on the right one.
It's a sharp opening statement. Not a platitude. A memory. And it cuts straight to what went missing last season: the sense that Liverpool could make Anfield a hostile, electric environment rather than a ground visiting teams were quietly comfortable operating in.
A direct answer to last season's problems
The 25/26 campaign was difficult to watch for Liverpool supporters. Too many dropped points at home. Too many opponents leaving Merseyside without being pressed into submission. The criticism of Arne Slot's methods — that the football became passive, too methodical, not sufficiently ruthless — wasn't unfair by the end. Liverpool had drifted from the high-intensity identity that made them so hard to play against for most of the previous decade.
Iraola's stated priorities read like a direct response to that. Work rate. Pressing. Aggression. Verticality. "We have to be a team that works hard, intense, aggressive, vertical so everyone can be identified, everyone can feel comfortable supporting this team," he said. That's not vague aspirational language — it's a tactical philosophy.
He also made clear he won't be fundamentally reinventing himself to fit the job. "If they sign me, it's because they want a lot of things that I was doing before in other clubs," he said. Given what he built at Bournemouth — a side that finished just one place below Liverpool last season on a fraction of the budget — that confidence isn't misplaced.
What this means for Liverpool's season
The betting market will be watching how quickly this transition takes hold. A Liverpool side playing with more intensity and vertical directness is a meaningfully different proposition from the one that stumbled through 25/26. Opponents who found them pedestrian last season may need to reassess. Anfield's home record, one of the shakier ones by their own standards recently, should tighten if the atmosphere Iraola is describing actually materialises.
There's a real project here, though. Coaching a squad to press harder and win second balls at Liverpool's level isn't a pre-season talking point — it's months of work on the training ground. Whether the players already at the club can shift their habits quickly enough will define how early the results reflect the intent.
"I would like to give them a team that they can feel proud of," Iraola told supporters. After last season, that's exactly the right thing to say. Whether it translates to the pitch is the only question that matters.
