Andoni Iraola’s start to life as Liverpool manager has been divisive. But in all honesty, he wasn’t exactly given a blank slate to start off his reign in charge of the Reds.
The 2024/25 Premier League champions struggled last term. The masses lay the blame for this underperformance squarely at the feet of Arne Slot. He wasn’t getting the best out of the squad, even if it was unbalanced.
The Dutchman also divided opinion. Those who wanted to keep him adopted the approach that given the narrative that he was the reason for the disappointing campaign, as soon as he was replaced, Liverpool would once again be challenging for the title.
When Iraola was appointed, the idea was he’d have the Reds playing free-flowing, attacking football.
The fact the Merseyside club are nine points off the pace after 10 games alongside struggling for goals in the Premier League is now seen as vindication for Slot. Iraola was never going to be judged fairly on that basis.
It wasn’t necessarily as extreme as 'if they don’t compete for the title then Slot was right and he should never have been sacked', but we weren’t far off that. Lines had been drawn. Heels had been dug in. Minds wouldn’t be changed.
It’s football, isn’t it? You can’t be changing an opinion, after all.
We may only just be 10 games into the 2026/27 season but some are already debating whether Iraola will still be in charge next summer. Fans are so entrenched in the Slot vs squad balance argument that the big picture has been ignored.
By big picture here we’re talking about Liverpool being fourth in the Premier League, in the top eight of the Champions League and into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.
By big picture, we’re talking about the underlying numbers.
Offensively, the Reds aren’t great. Their 1.4 goals per 90 average sees them rank joint 8th in the English top-flight but it’s not down much on last year’s average of 1.6. Just like last season, they rank sixth for expected goals (xG).
The caveat here is that Iraola is trying to bed in two new signings in attack while getting the team up to speed with his new system. He’s also getting Cody Gakpo and Rio Ngumoha used to playing on the right flank. You’d expect things to ramp up in the near future.
Defensively, Liverpool are seventh for expected goals against (xGA) but third for clean sheets. A big jump has been in fouls. They rank first this season, up from 18th last year. This metric alone is a snapshot into the difference between Iraola and Slot.
The former has his team playing a lot more aggressively. The latter had the Reds playing passive football, something fans didn’t take to.
And, impressively, Iraola has managed to get his team playing this sort of football despite the gluttony of injuries he’s had to deal with.
Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni have been ruled out for the entirety of his time here. Dominik Szoboszlai, Jeremie Frimpong, Ryan Gravenberch, Victor Munoz, Joe Gomez, Gakpo and Alexander Isak have all spent time on the sidelines.
Iraola has found ways around this though. Ronald Araujo has made the right-back position his own. The Spanish tactician has trusted the likes of Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni and Lewis Koumas with roles in the squad. It’s something that Slot was reluctant to do, even when injuries mounted.
And while things haven’t been smooth sailing, there are things to latch onto when you’re looking for positives.
Isak is scoring goals. In fact, only Erling Haaland has more goals than the Liverpool No9 this term. It’s a huge upgrade on the version of Isak fans witnessed last term. Florian Wirtz has looked a lot more convincing this season. He’s still not justified his price tag but you’re starting to see more consistency from the No7. Alexis Mac Allister looks brilliant again having struggled for form and fitness during Slot’s final campaign in charge.
There are obvious patterns of play and the players understand what is required of them. It sounds basic but this was lacking last season.
Ultimately, despite their underwhelming start to the campaign, the Reds are tracking to finish nine points better off than last season. And what’s after losing Andrew Robertson, Mohamed Salah and Curtis Jones in the summer without really replacing any of them.
Liverpool are 10 Premier League games into a project under a new manager. Things won’t be perfect yet. There will be room for improvement.
But he’s doing a decent enough job in the circumstances. Isak is scoring. Wirtz is more involved. Liverpool are looking a lot more like a team without the ball. Things will improve as the season progresses too.
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