Mek

It is clear after Liverpool's game against Sunderland that Iraola will have the exact same approach as he did at Bournemouth. Despite the significant improvement we will see in pressing intensity compared to Slot, I think Liverpool are going to struggle defensively unless we see some adaptations from Iraola. The first concern I have is how fixed he is on a zonal press. The approach is has similarities in idea to Slot's, despite what people might think, although Iraola is significantly better at coaching the intensity. It works very well when the opposition are more positionally fixed with less mobility, as you can plan hand-offs and jumps, mainly through the -1 player, in a choreographed manner based on the opposition's structure. However, when the opposition are more mobile and less positionally fixed, it causes much more confusion because the jumps cannot be choreographed. In these moments, a team has to be patient and sit zonally, something that Arsenal do incredibly well, but Iraola's teams look to trigger the press much more frequently. Confusion in these jumps usually leads to gaps between the midfield and defence, something the likes of Ten Hag and Slot became infamous for. It is actually one of the main reasons why man-to-man approaches have become dominant in elite football. The biggest concern I have is the rest defence. Iraola sets up with wide full-backs who are free to commit high and usually end up in a 2-2-6 or even a 2-1-7 when the 8 joins the attack. It is very important to note that these rest-defence issues have not been exposed as frequently as they potentially could have been at Bournemouth, since they did not spend huge periods in settled possession. At Liverpool, opponents will defend deeper, and Liverpool will spend much longer sustaining attacks in the opposition half. As a result, the rest-defence structure becomes much more important. The intriguing part is that this issue cannot be solved without Iraola completely changing his ideas. The mobility and dynamism afforded to his players, which make Iraola's teams so devastating when attacking large spaces, are essentially what make his rest defence exposed. Putting in a more rigid, compact rest-defence structure would also have a major impact on the ideas with the ball. That is why I don't expect anything to change in this regard. This is not to say Iraola cannot succeed at Liverpool. There is still a long way to go, and coaches adapt. However, if we continue to see the exact same Iraola as we did at Bournemouth, I struggle to see how Liverpool consistently competes for the league with him.

Slot: Calvin Ramsay is not good enough- Liverpool fans “play him, Play him” AI - ships him out - Liverpool fans 🤐 Slot: “Chiesa is unable to play games, he is always injured” - Liverpool fans: “You liar, you hate him, he is okay, Play him now, he is your saviour” AI - Doesn’t even play him - Liverpool fans 🤐 Slot: “Endo can help at CB but in the Midfield we have others who are better” - Liverpool fans: “Why does this man hate Endo like this” AI - Doesn’t even have Endo in the team - Liverpool fans 🤐 Slot: Szoboslai can help us a lot better at Right Back than in the midfield - Liverpool fans “Why is this bald fraud wasting our best Midfielder at Right Back” AI plays Dom in the midfield - Liverpool fans “We play badly with Dom in the middle” Slot: Elliot not good enough to play more for Liverpool - Liverpool fans: “He loves this club, play him” AI loans Elliot out - Liverpool fans 🤐 Slot: Sends Tsimikas out on loan - Liverpool fans: “Tsimikas was so good, why did he even send him on loan” AI plays Tsimikas - Liverpool fans: “He is not a Liverpool standard of player.” Please don’t kill me 😅

Do you know what to call this

Liverpool Slot 2.0

10 goals conceded in 3 games against the likes of lask, Villarreal and fenerbache. What would happen when we go to the next round?. This is obviously not good enough! This fanbase were demanding silly standards last year but suddenly have lowered their supposed new found standards. #LFC