Andoni Iraola seems very close to becoming the next Liverpool manager after Arne Slot was sacked on Saturday.
Iraola is the clear favourite for the job, and there has been a suggestion he could be in the dugout by the end of the week.
The Spaniard achieved great things at Bournemouth, taking them to sixth place in the Premier League, but Rickie Lambert has questioned how Liverpool players will react to his training.
Is Andoni Iraola the best option to replace Arne Slot? If not, who would you appoint?
Liverpool players may not like Andoni Iraola’s training sessions
Luis Enrique to Liverpool was mooted as an alternative option, but he looks set to sign a new contract with PSG after winning another Champions League.
As for Iraola, he is well-known for a highly intense training style that leaves players with very little time off.
That is somewhat opposite to Arne Slot, who perhaps gave the squad too much time away from the training field.
Now, speaking to Broadcast Moose on TikTok, former Liverpool striker Lambert was asked about the sacking of Slot and a new manager coming in.
He revealed his doubts about Iraola, saying: “I’m not too sure about Iraola. It’s the training, I’m interested to see how the players handle it, let’s wait and see what it’s like.”
What does Andoni Iraola need to do to get Liverpool players on his side early on?
Slot has left some wreckage behind…
Andoni Iraola’s training explained by Antoine Semenyo
Lambert may have a point, given what former Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo said about Iraola’s training earlier this year.
The Cherries players and fans were not convinced by Iraola initially, but they did eventually find form and begin to improve.
He said: “When he came in, he had his way of playing and it was very new to us. The way he structured the weeks, we didn’t really have any days off.
“So it’s very hard for a team to go from having Sunday/Wednesday off to no days off.
“But it was very different at the start, results weren’t going our way and the fans were saying he needs to be sacked. Then I think we beat like Burnley at home and just everything changed, everyone just slowly got used to the system and just went up from there.”
But whether the manager will be given time to prove his methods work on Merseyside after such a poor 2025/26 remains to be seen.
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