“While it was his first experience as a head coach, he wasn’t anxious. He was a calm coach who gave us a lot of confidence” Andoni Iraola’s journey to the Liverpool dugout
The tiny ground of O Vao sits just a few yards from the beach in Coruxo, on the west coast of Spain. Not far from the Portuguese border and just outside Vigo, the venue holds only 1,500 people, but was where arguably the most pivotal match of Andoni Iraola’s managerial career took place.
In December 2019, Iraola was the manager of Mirandes – appointed not long after they’d been promoted to the Segunda Division. It was his first job as a gaffer in Spain, having been sacked just eight months into a stint with Cypriot club AEK Larnaca.
The early stages at Mirandes weren’t all plain sailing, either. The club from Burgos province, close to Iraola’s native Basque Country, won just one of their opening 10 league games under the new boss, to sit second bottom of the table. Even Racing Santander, who would eventually finish bottom by a distance, beat them 4-0.
Just when form started to pick up, Mirandes headed west to face Coruxo – of the 80-team third tier, split across four regional divisions in Spain – in the first round of the Copa del Rey. As the game entered stoppage time Coruxo led 4-3, on course for a major upset. Then came a controversial equaliser from the penalty spot – in the angry aftermath, the hosts had two players sent off, and Mirandes triumphed 5-4 in extra-time.
“Total madness,” was how one media outlet described a game that veered to and fro, like it was Liverpool vs Alaves in 2001’s UEFA Cup final. “Coruxo deserved to win,” Iraola admitted post-match.
A whirlwind six weeks later, Mirandes had progressed to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey for just the second time in their history, defeating La Liga trio Celta Vigo, Sevilla and Villarreal along the way. It was a cup run that alerted many to Iraola’s budding managerial talent including the person who would be instrumental in taking him to Anfield this past summer.
Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s chief executive of football when Iraola was hired in June, had known about him for a long time. Edwards had tried to lure Iraola to the club once before – as long ago as 2013, when the Basque was a 31-year-old right-back at Athletic Bilbao. Iraola spent almost all of his career at the club, making more than 500 appearances.
Liverpool were pushing for the Premier League title under Brendan Rodgers, midway through the campaign that would end with Steven Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea, and considering adding competition to Glen Johnson at full-back. Edwards was then the club’s director of technical performance, and had asked scout Julian Ward to contact Iraola’s representatives. Ward went to watch him captain Athletic Bilbao to a November win over Malaga, before Liverpool expressed their interest in making a January move.
Iraola was tempted, and thought carefully before opting to sign a new contract at Athletic Bilbao – when Johnson got injured later that season, Jon Flanagan ended up filling in, even earning praise from Cafu. When Iraola informed Liverpool of his decision, unusually he accompanied it with a letter thanking them for their interest – saying he wished to play at Anfield one day, praising the ability of Johnson, and joking that he was surprised they still wanted him after watching the game at Malaga, when he didn’t think he’d played that well. Edwards appreciated the letter, and kept an eye on Iraola’s progress when he became a manager.
Mirandes understandably didn’t go on to win the 2020 Copa del Rey, defeated by the Real Sociedad of Martin Odegaard, Alexander Isak and Mikel Oyarzabal in the semis. The one glaring absence from Iraola’s otherwise impressive CV is the lack of a major trophy as either a manager or a player, despite coming astonishingly close several times.
Under Marcelo Bielsa, Iraola was part of the Athletic Bilbao side that reached the Europa League final in 2012, beating Manchester United at Old Trafford on the way. In the Bucharest showpiece though, Atletico Madrid beat them 3-0. “I don’t know when an opportunity like this will happen to us again,” Iraola said. Athletic Bilbao haven’t made it to a European final since.
Iraola was involved in five finals as a player and lost them all. The other four were all against Barcelona – one in the Spanish Super Cup, and three in the Copa del Rey. By the last, the 2015 Copa del Rey final against Barça’s famous MSN front line, Iraola was getting a little fed up – particularly when a showboating Neymar pulled off a rainbow flick to rub in victory late on. “I didn’t find it elegant or sporting,” the defender said.
He remained a nearly man at the very highest level. Iraola won seven caps for Spain during an era when they bagged three trophies, but his debut came a month after their Euro 2008 glory, aged 26. He wasn’t selected for the triumphant World Cup squad in 2010, and was then ruled out of Euro 2012 through injury, just when it looked as though he might have made the cut.
When he became a manager however, it presented a new opportunity to climb to the pinnacle of the game.
On the face of it, being sacked only eight months into his first job looked like a failure, but the reality was more nuanced. At AEK Larnaca, Iraola made an instant impact, guiding them through three qualifying rounds to reach the Europa League group stage. In the league, they won six of their first eight games, but then didn’t triumph in seven, and Iraola was fired.
“He did a fantastic job because we got to the Europa League group stage,” French striker Florian Taulemesse told NC-Network, a Cypriot media platform, also crediting a backroom staff member who has followed Iraola to Anfield. “He had a great strength and conditioning coach with him, Pablo de la Torre – the way he wanted us to play, we had to be in peak condition.
“Iraola was all about the high press, then every time we recovered the ball, he wanted to see vertical passes, not backward passes. He encouraged us to cross the ball from wide areas and shoot at the first opportunity. High press, recover the ball, create openings, shoot – do that again and again; attack, attack! Our wingers were fast, making us dangerous in transition.
“While it was his first experience as a head coach, he wasn’t anxious. He was a calm coach who gave us a lot of confidence. But it became difficult mixing domestic football with European competition, because we were a Cypriot club with a small budget. We got a few injuries to key players and didn’t have much depth. In Cyprus, three bad results get a manager sacked.”
That wasn’t the case at Mirandes, where he recovered from his slow start, steering the club to 11th in the Segunda Division, as well as that Copa del Rey semi-final, before opting to leave the club when his one-year contract ended.
He joined Rayo Vallecano, who had finished just four places above Mirandes but had a history of playing in the top division semi-regularly – albeit often as overperforming minnows, at a stadium that holds less than 15,000. Within 12 months, Iraola took Rayo back to La Liga once more via the play-offs.
The progress didn’t end there – they finished 12th in their first year back in La Liga and reached the Copa del Rey semis. Like at Mirandes, it was only the second time Rayo had ever got that far in the competition, having also narrowly avoided an embarrassing first-round exit – this time thanks to a penalty shootout victory at fifth-tier Guijuelo.
Rayo also caught the eye by beating Barcelona home and away – in the following campaign, they took four more points off the Camp Nou side. That made Iraola only the sixth boss in La Liga history to avoid defeat against Barça in any of his first four games facing them as a manager, and the first since Javier Clemente in the early 1980s. Some revenge for all those cup final defeats to Barcelona as a player.
“We weren’t going to take the ball away from Barça the whole time, so we had to choose what to cover and direct the pressure towards their creators, and who was going to receive the ball,” Iraola explained after his fourth game against them, a 2-1 home triumph at Vallecas. “We didn’t let them have the structure they wanted, and in the transitions we were dangerous.”
Iraola remains unbeaten against Barça today, having left Rayo at the end of his contract that summer, after improving their league position again to 11th. That February, Leeds had been rebuffed in their attempts to hire him, with Rayo unwilling to let him go before the end of his deal. West Ham were also linked, but it was Bournemouth who got their man, having surprisingly fired Gary O’Neil to create an opening for him – a move that had echoes of Southampton’s sacking of Nigel Adkins to recruit Mauricio Pochettino in 2013, after the Argentine had impressed at Espanyol.
The end result was similar, too: like Pochettino at St Mary’s, Iraola oversaw consistent progress at the Vitality Stadium, even if he got off to another slow start, winning none of his first nine league games. Having finished 15th the season before Iraola’s arrival though, Bournemouth improved to 12th, then ninth, and then sixth last term as they qualified for Europe for the first time in their history. Again, he opted to move on when his contract expired.
His destination was unclear at that point – Manchester United and Chelsea were linked, but opted to place their trust in others, with Crystal Palace also waiting in the wings before Liverpool’s decision to sack Arne Slot opened the door to Anfield. While Chelsea chose Xabi Alonso ahead of Iraola, the Reds preferred Iraola to Alonso – believing he was a better fit for the heavy metal football they wanted to return to, after such success under Jurgen Klopp.
Iraola is Liverpool’s first Spanish boss since Rafa Benitez, although former Reds defender John Arne Riise thinks they’re not that similar. “They’re very different characters when it comes to how they communicate with players and how they act on the bench,” says the Norwegian, who played under Benitez. “I’ve watched Iraola on the touchline and he looks more energetic, more involved with his body language.
“Rafa was much more about strict tactics and a bit more cold-faced – I mean nothing bad by that because I had a great relationship with him, but I think players today will have more close, one-on-one conversations with Iraola than we typically had with Rafa.
“I liked the way Iraola’s Bournemouth played by attacking with real pace and power, and how quickly they transitioned forward. I also loved the way they really sprinted back to support the team and stay compact the moment they lost the ball. It was similar to what we did during my first few seasons under Rafa, when we were challenging for leagues – quick transitions, powerful forward movement, intense tracking back. That was lacking last season.
“I’d like to see more enthusiasm and energy on the bench to engage with the fans and the players, as well – Arne Slot was very reserved on the touchline. You want that Jurgen Klopp style where he gets the crowd and the players going. It’s important for Iraola to show he has that kind of passion.”
If Neymar turns up and starts doing a few rainbow flicks, that would certainly bring out a few emotions for a man who has never won a major trophy, but has now brought his managerial talents to a club where he has a genuine chance of doing just that. This is Iraola’s ninth season as a manager – in the previous eight, his club ended in a higher league position than their last campaign. If he can keep doing that at Anfield, success won’t be too far away.
