“Pressing wasn’t my game. I’d run for you all day but closing your marker and bending your run… it makes me tired just watching it” Peter Crouch on why he may have struggled under Andoni Iraola
As Liverpool’s title defence faltered last season and the team slumped to a fifth-placed finish, many believed that a lack of intensity in their style of play was to blame.
The Reds would finish 25 points behind Premier League champions Arsenal, with Arne Slot paying the price as the club moved to replace him with former Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola.
The Spaniard has built his managerial reputation on an intense, relentless style, with former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch believing that Liverpool fans will quickly warm to the new boss.
Crouch on Iraola’s playing style
“The pressing that Andoni Iraola demands of his players is off the charts,” Crouch tells FourFourTwo, before admitting that he would not have enjoyed playing under the former Spain international.
“That wasn’t my game – I used to quite like pretending to close an opponent down, then when he ran past me, I’d have a little rest!”
And while Crouch does not see himself as fitting the modern-day style of pressing from the front, he insists that running was never an issue for him.
“If it was getting on the end of crosses, I’d run for you all day,” he continues. “But this constant running up and down, closing your marker and bending your run, it makes me tired just watching it.”
Crouch, therefore, has enormous respect for players capable of doing both jobs.
“I have huge admiration for players who can do both, though: press and win the ball high up the pitch, and also get in the box and score goals.”
The best Liverpool sides of recent years have been defined by their intense style of play and Crouch believes Iraola will be a hit at Anfield.
“Liverpool fans will take to Iraola’s style,” he adds.
“It’s more direct, more all-action, whereas Arne Slot’s play was more pedestrian.”
