Andoni Iraola Prepares for Premier League Debut at Anfield
Andoni Iraola walks into his first Premier League game at Anfield with two things swirling around him: a £100m transfer storm and the memory of Nottingham Forest making life miserable for the man he has replaced.
The Basque has barely had time to catch his breath. His Liverpool tenure opened with a chaotic, high-wire 1-1 draw at Newcastle, rescued at the death by Dominik Szoboszlai. Now comes Forest at 12.30pm on Saturday, a fixture that twice turned Arne Slot’s Anfield into a stage for the visitors, not the hosts. Two games. Two Forest wins. Aggregate score 4-0. A scar on the recent history of this stadium.
Iraola knows the backdrop. He just isn’t interested in living in it.
Transfers swirling, patience demanded
By the time he sat down at the AXA Training Centre, the story of the day was already written: Liverpool had reached an outline agreement with Paris Saint-Germain for Bradley Barcola. A guaranteed fee just over £100m, a package potentially rising towards £120m with add-ons. The club’s flagship attacking signing in the post-Mohamed Salah era edging closer.
“As you know, we are trying to sign in that position,” Iraola said, careful not to cross the line into talking about another club’s player. “We are trying to improve and fill that position as we don’t have the numbers. I hope we have good news soon but we are still not there.”
He has been clear from the start: wide players are a priority. Not a luxury, a necessity.
“There are certain things we can but it’s true we need players in the wide areas,” he admitted. “I’m sure if we can improve other areas we will but I don’t know how the market is going to finish. I have to be patient as well as you. It’s very uncomfortable for me as you are dealing with uncertainties all the time. In four or five days we will know what we have and then we can make proper plans.”
That sense of limbo hangs over more than just Barcola. Asked again about the overall transfer picture, Iraola’s answer was blunt: “I don’t know what’s going to happen. Even myself I have to be patient. Then we get to September 2, this is who we have and the options we have, then we can start thinking. For now we don’t know. I have in my head what I want, we’ve been talking since the beginning with the club, they know what we want. It’s about closing the deals.”
The market is open, the money is big, and the manager refuses to pretend anything is guaranteed. Not even with players already in the building.
On Cody Gakpo, excellent at Newcastle and the subject of inevitable speculation in a summer of upheaval, Iraola was effusive but realistic.
“After the performance he had in the first game I say the same, he’s playing very well for us. He’s been very good since he’s been back from the World Cup. The right attitude and I hope we can keep him at that level. He can be very influential on us. When the market is open and we bring in expensive players I cannot guarantee anything. But I don’t know. Our players, I cannot guarantee anything about how many we are going to sign or whatever. Experience tells us that if there’s an opportunity the last day you can do something.”
The message: nobody is nailed down, nothing is fully settled, and the squad you see now might not be the one he sends out after the deadline.
A midfield under the microscope
If the transfer talk crackled in the background, the noise around Liverpool’s midfield has been front and centre all week. One game in, and the debate has already gone into overdrive.
Iraola expected that.
“Not surprised, I expected when I came here that everything would be magnified. I’m starting to understand,” he said. “But it’s just one game where we did a lot of very good things, even the players in midfield did, but there are definitely things we need to improve. Now it’s a matter of myself and coaching staff and players.”
Newcastle exposed Liverpool in defensive transition, and the Spaniard didn’t hide from it.
“It’s football. You go to the goals always. If you make exactly the same mistake then it’s normal and I understand we have to talk about the defensive transitions. I thought we improved during the game in that aspect, were much much better getting the numbers. I think the first goal is more to blame than the second in terms of how we positioned when we lost the ball. We will (soon) be talking about something else.”
He wants his midfielders aggressive, front-foot, daring with the ball – but not reckless.
“We can’t attack with everyone,” he said. “I don’t want to tell Ryan Gravenberch don’t carry the ball as he scored against Monaco it came from his pass to Alex. But there is a balance, recognising the situation how we can balance those numbers in those positions. Sometimes you have to accept the players go forward, it isn’t always one stays back and one goes forward. If the opposition are defending deep maybe both can go forward.”
That word again: balance. It runs through everything he says.
“We don’t want to lose the offensive side, the fluidity, the arrival of numbers, but we were punished the other day. We have been intently working on it. It’s nothing new, we always want to control that. But there is a balance, we can’t go from one way where we send a lot of people forward to putting everyone back and it looks stale. It’s a matter of identifying the situation. The players who are very good, they smell whether they can take the risk of going or staying, it’s the quality of the player who takes those decisions.”
Early control, late chaos
Strip away the drama of Szoboszlai’s stoppage-time equaliser at St James’ Park and Iraola actually liked a lot of what he saw.
“I thought we controlled the game quite well,” he reflected. “I felt we had meaningful possession, were quite direct in attack. I was feeling good in the game, I felt we were closer to scoring than Newcastle in most part of the games. I felt good things in the first game.”
One of those “good things” was the debut of young defender Jacquet, thrown into a demanding opening assignment.
“He played very well considering it was his first game,” Iraola said. “It’s true he was tired, we had to sub him as you could feel he was tired in the last five minutes. He is very confident on the ball and good without the ball. Very young, we have to accept he will make mistakes.”
Mistakes are tolerated. Repeating them is not. That is the line he is trying to draw in a side that wants to attack in waves without leaving the back door swinging open.
Selection calls and absentees
There were also clear signals on the squad pecking order. Fede Chiesa will not feature against Forest.
“Fede is not available, in the game against Como he felt something in his back,” Iraola revealed.
Harvey Elliott, meanwhile, was left out of the matchday group at Newcastle, a decision rooted not in a lack of faith, but in the realities of a 20-man squad.
“With Harvey and some of the players I can only choose 20. Harvey is trying and improving every week but I still prefer other options, about the balance on the bench. That’s why James McConnell was in the squad, but it’s now another new week and new chances for everyone. They have to keep that mentality.”
Elliott, like others on the fringes, is being told the door is not closed – but nobody is owed minutes.
Forest, Glasner and an Anfield reckoning
If the transfer market has dominated the headlines, Nottingham Forest have quietly become a tactical problem Liverpool cannot ignore. Under Oliver Glasner they are organised, stubborn and dangerous on the break. Twice they have come to Anfield in the last two seasons and walked away with wins, 1-0 and 3-0, as Slot’s reign began to fray.
Iraola has studied them closely.
“He has been very successful,” he said of Glasner. “You can see straight away the shape. They don’t concede many chances, against Leeds it was a very tight game which was won with a free-kick in the last minute. We will have to earn every chance, win our duels, nothing is for free. We have to be good on the ball and patient because defensively they are very solid and good and have very good players. In transitions they are good threats on the counter.”
Patience. Precision. Duels. The themes of the week all point in the same direction: Liverpool cannot afford to be loose.
For Iraola personally, this is not just another fixture. It is his first Premier League game at Anfield, the moment every Liverpool manager privately imagines from the day they sign.
“It’s going to be a special moment for me to have first PL game at Anfield,” he admitted. “I already felt it in pre-season. I will be thinking of the game but it’s also going to be emotional, it has to be like this as it’s a special place. I hope everything goes well and I enjoy the game.”
Enjoyment, though, will only come with control – on the pitch and off it. The club edges towards a £100m-plus statement signing. The manager wrestles with balance in midfield, numbers out wide, and a Forest side that has turned Anfield into a hunting ground.
He has four or five days to see what the market gives him. Ninety minutes on Saturday to show what he can do with what he has.
