Arne Slot exited Liverpool last weekend after a disappointing follow up season to the Reds’ 2024/25 Premier League title winning campaign. Andoni Iraola, who recently parted ways with Bournemouth, is now tipped to be the man who steps in as Liverpool manager, tasked with improving upon their fourth placed finish.
Anfield also witnessed the departures of club legends Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, as well as one of their finest modern day centre backs, Ibrahinate Konate. So what will Iraola’s immediate response be?
Task #1: Activate Florian Wirtz
While the wording may sound mechanical, it will be anything but for Iraola during his first season. Wirtz, one of Liverpool’s all time record signings, endured a miserably disappointing debut season at Anfield not solely for his on ball action and physicality, but also his mentality.
Jurgen Klopp famously sowed the seeds that transported Liverpool supporters from doubters to believers, creating a squad of ‘mentality monsters’ that never said die. Nobody embodied that way of thinking better than Salah and Robertson. Now it’s time for Wirtz to adopt their mentality.
The German needs to be higher up the pitch, operating in central areas, and providing the passes that his striker, another record signing in Alexander Isak has every right to expect. But first, Wirtz needs to rediscover the belief that he is one of the world’s best players and can play like so.
Maybe the long shadow of Salah will cast a dark cloud over Liverpool’s forward options for years to come. But if Iraola can instil that confidence in a supremely struggling Wirtz, he could be the Reds’ game changer in the Egyptian’s absence.
Task #2: Phase out the deadwood
This one is less in Iraola’s hands, as it remains to be seen to what extent he will be involved in Liverpool’s transfer business or if the Reds’ owners spend freely again. But if the ex Bournemouth man can get his way, he needs immediate reinforcements everywhere on the pitch to phase out the deadwood.
Barring a shock return to form for Alexis Mac Allister at the World Cup, the Argentine’s drop off in 2025/26 was shocking enough to warrant an Anfield exit or rotational role. Similarly, Cody Gakpo appears to have stretched his limited talents as far as they could go. With no Salah left to hold his hand, a departure or bench option is also required.
When the opening sequence to Rocky III rolled in 1982, audiences witnessed Rocky Balboa become a “civilised” man, while his opponent Clubber Lang trained in squalor out of survival, not complacency. That is the hunger Liverpool require within the heart of anyone who dons the red shirt. Iraola must question whether those Premier League and World Cup winning players “civilised” after their successes, are the future backbone of a club that must enter every campaign as though they’ve never won a football match in their lives.
Experience is needed. But never in the absence of desire. And there are far too many players in this Liverpool side running dangerously close to having lost it.
Task #3: Replace Salah ‘in the aggregate’
Iraola’s most impossible task but one that, if he can achieve it, is crucial to his success, is replacing Mohamed Salah ‘in the aggregate’.
The Reds’ owners have priors in this department. The team who coined the phrase with the Oakland A’s ‘Moneyball’ system caught the attention of Liverpool owner John W. Henry. Also owner of MLB team the Boston Red Sox, Henry attempted to scout Billy Beane, who saw potential in an ‘in the aggregate’ approach to sporting success replacing a player’s output not through an individual, but through a collective.
Mohamed Salahs don’t grow on trees. It’s more likely than not that Liverpool will never see a player of his calibre at Anfield ever again. But what Iraola can do is extract enough value from the assets he does have and perhaps gain more in the summer to replace his legendary numbers ‘in the aggregate’.
Salah did the reverse in Liverpool’s title winning campaign last season, replacing the output of his 2019/20 winning collective through individual statistics. Liverpool’s front five during their 99 point title winning season recorded 102 Premier League goal involvements, with Salah registering 29 and Sadio Mane tallying 25. In the Reds’ 2024/25 title winning campaign, in the absence of Mane and Roberto Firmino, Salah upped that number to a record breaking 47 but the front five’s output still reached 101 involvements.
If their two Premier League victories are anything to go off, Iraola must find a way to extract over 100 goal contributions from his five highest output players next season. That is possible.
With another 20+ goal campaign from Isak, a sprinkle of assists, and the Wirtz explosion that everyone has been waiting on, Liverpool would be halfway there. While not yet on Salah’s level in a Liverpool shirt, the German does possess enough to reach that magic number. Lucrative summer business could make an ‘in the aggregate’ dream a reality.
Throw in a hopefully returning Hugo Ekitike to chip in further down the line as the Premier League’s version of the NBA’s ‘sixth man’, and Iraola could be in business.
The bottom line
Activate Wirtz. Phase out the deadwood. Replace Salah collectively.
Three tasks. Daunting. Monumental. But achievable.
Iraola’s Liverpool reign hasn’t started yet. But the to do list is already longer than most managers get in a lifetime.
No pressure, Andoni. No pressure at all.
