Liverpool copy Leeds but hope for ‘organised chaos’ with Iraola instead of relegation under Allardyce | OneFootball

It instinctively feels sub-optimal for Liverpool to find a scrunched-up Leeds managerial shortlist from early 2023 and follow it so religiously as to probably end next season getting relegated in a similar four-game Sam Allardyce whirlwind.

But then this method has delivered a Premier League title, even if that was on a painfully distant alternate timeline on which Liverpool were happy and transfer geniuses and brilliant succession planners and also actually sold players for money instead of steadfastly refusing to accept the existence of Jean-Marc Bosman.

Perhaps that explains their dormant interest in and now energised pursuit of Andoni Iraola.

A coach who has honoured the contract extension Richard Hughes gave him as Bournemouth technical director and left the Cherries in a position of absurd, historic strength after three years, is the same chief’s answer to a developing crisis at Anfield.

“We were really a counter-attacking team,” said Bournemouth co-owner Bill Foley around the time of the Spaniard’s ‘bizarre’ and lambasted appointment on the south coast. “I felt we needed to be on the offence. We needed to be aggressive, we needed to attack. That’s Andoni’s style.”

Foley added that Hughes was “intrigued” by Iraola and suggested his candidacy as “an agent of change”, with the American accepting “responsibility” if it didn’t work, “because I was involved in the decision-making process”.

There will be no such protection or deflection for Hughes this time around: sacking Arne Slot was ultimately his decision and Iraola is indelibly his man. This will define and decide the Liverpool sporting director’s future more than anyone else’s.

The line in one of the numerous Inside Stories from within Anfield, about the Reds wanting ‘to evolve to a more aggressive, front-foot style of play’, does echo that Bournemouth plan of three years ago – and Leeds a few months before when they were trying to source Jesse Marsch’s replacement. But that in itself underlines the gamble Liverpool are taking.

Does suitability to the Leeds’ and Bournemouths of this world not form part of the argument against Liverpool going for Iraola?

Iraola said this season that he would “prefer a 4-4 over a 0-0”. Jurgen Klopp once praised his “organised chaos” and “offensive approach”. The intensity that has characterised the Spaniard’s teams should sit better with supporters than the passive, unfocused, vulnerable, identity-less mess Slot’s champions became almost immediately after his pièce de résistance: “the best game of football I have ever been involved in”, which doubled up as a Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.

But beyond shifting to a more proactive, high-energy style – which does not particularly suit this Liverpool squad in terms of either numbers or profile – the myriad reasons to appoint Iraola are not really relevant to the Reds.

His work in improving Bournemouth despite losing almost their entire defence last summer and best player in the middle of the season has been impeccable. But thriving at a selling club stepping stone offers no indication as to how Iraola might fare higher up the ladder with far weightier expectations.

He has never finished higher than sixth and will ultimately be predicted to compete for major honours immediately.

An 18-game unbeaten run qualified Bournemouth for Europe for the first time in their history this season. But that includes just four victories in their last 12, and came straight off the back of an 11-match winless run.

Iraola himself has only managed in Europe once, taking AEK Larnaca past Dundalk, Sturm Graz and AS Trencin into the 2018/19 Europa League group stages. But they went no further, domestic results started to suffer as balancing competitions became tougher, and the decision to sack him was made by the middle of January.

Those streaks which seem to come with Iraola’s methods, that have become a staple of his coaching processes, will not be tolerated in the same way at Liverpool as they were by Bournemouth, Rayo Vallecano or Mirandes.

Iraola himself knows as much. “I’ve been so lucky. So, so lucky,” he said at his Bournemouth farewell. “I have to be thankful every day for this group of players, for this staff, for this club, for everyone that supported me – especially when we didn’t start as well and probably you were thinking ‘Who the f*** is this guy?’.”

If he wins just one of his first 11 games at Liverpool, there will be plenty of expletives and furious questions, maybe even a panicked call to an Allardyce type, but no reminiscent laughter three years down the line.

It might well work. Iraola is a ludicrously gifted coach whose recent work has been especially phenomenal, and these things do not always have to follow an established pattern. For him to make the jump seamlessly or even just not disastrously would be close to unprecedented, but certainly not impossible.

A well-earned promotion for Iraola is a monumental risk on the part of Liverpool. Having appeared to have cracked the code in terms of moving on from a dynasty, nothing emphasises their slide from power quite like emulating a Leeds team relegated three years ago.