A few Liverpool players may struggle to work under Andoni Iraola should he take over from Arne Slot.
While confirmation is yet to arrive, all signs are pointing towards Iraola becoming the next Reds coach.
The Spaniard managed to secure European football with Bournemouth, for which he deserves much praise. But Jamie Carragher is unsure if Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz will work under the now former Cherries boss.
What does Andoni Iraola need to do to get Liverpool players on his side early on?
Slot has left some wreckage behind…
Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz could struggle under Andoni Iraola
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate on Tuesday morning, Carragher said: “My worry with that, is when we’re talking about Iraola, we go back to that style. Of course, a manager plays his style, but they’ve recruited for Arne Slot’s style, which was not quite Jurgen Klopp; it’s a bit more control.
“Now, when we’re saying the football wasn’t great, you’re right. It wasn’t. It was slow, laborious, but it wasn’t a case of the manager being defensive. He had a lot of attacking players on the pitch.
“My thing is now Isak, Wirtz, Ekitike, I’m not sure they are those type of players. That’s my worry.
“When we said the football was slow, the press wasn’t there. It was because we had Wirtz and Mac Allister in there. Isak doesn’t press.
“Ekitike doesn’t really press. So you almost brought these talented players in, and they couldn’t play this style that we associated with Klopp, we saw bits of in his first season, and Liverpool went the other way.”
Iraola’s high-intensity training and style have already been mentioned as a positive for Liverpool after their poor form last season.
But Carragher is correct to mention that we never really saw anything like that from Slot’s team in 2025/26.
Away from the style of play, though, Iraola will have the difficult task of trying to fit Ekitike and Isak into the same eleven.
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The Frenchman is expected to miss several months of next season due to injury anyway, but when he does return, it is hard to see how both he and Liverpool’s record signing can play together.
Iraola likes to use fast, aggressive wide players in his system, but moving Ekitike or Isak out onto the left as Slot did on occasion last term would hamper his tactics.
The alternative is benching one of the big-money strikers, but that is unlikely to go down well with either player.
Regardless, it is already clear that Liverpool will need to sign some new, quick wingers to suit Iraola’s system if they are to give the Spaniard the best chance of turning things around come next season.
On that front, Yan Diomande wants to secure a transfer before the World Cup, but the Reds have competition from PSG.
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