Liverpool hire ‘ludicrously gifted coach’ like Klopp but do they need seven players? | OneFootball

Liverpool are appointing Andoni Iraola, which would be like Liverpool appointing Jurgen Klopp if they had the players.

There’s some more Arsenal but can we talk about the World Cup now please? Mail us at theeditor@football365.com

Andoni Iraola as the new Klopp at Liverpool

Sub-optimal? To hire a ludicrously gifted coach? I think not my friends. Bournemouth very nearly finished higher in the league than us. Bournemouth. Did they spend nearly half a billion to do so? No sir, they did not. They’re a selling club and probably always will be.

Iraola monstrously overachieved at Bournemouth. His sides play a much more attacking and interesting style than Slot’s. Hell, he’s proved we could sell half the side out from under him and still make us a load more fun to support.

There was this guy who madly overachieved at a club called Borussia Dortmund and played crazy, exciting football. Hiring him seemed to go pretty well. Damned if I can remember his name, began with a K though….

Of course hiring him is a risk. Hiring anyone to manage any club is a risk. Who’s out there we could hire with as minimum risk as possible? Pep? Luis? Neither of them are coming to Liverpool. Get Jurgen out of retirement? I’d love to but it ain’t happening squire.

So instead we hire a guy who’ll maximise his use of the resources at minimal expense. Sounds alright to me.

Personally I think this season would have gone a lot better if we hadn’t spent one brass penny on anyone. Half our problems were caused by trying to fit square pegs into round holes. But the players are here now and so we need someone who can fit them together and make them work. Slot couldn’t. I think Iraola can.

Anyway, whatever happens next – one thing is for certain. We will be so much more entertaining than this season.

We could scarcely be less. James, Liverpool

But this Liverpool squad is not equipped

I do find a lot of the LFC analysis logically flawed at the mo’, especially arguments like those from Adrian Clarke on The Athletic, talking about if Areola comes in, he’ll be a “perfect fit” for Liverpool as he plays high intensity pressing football.

I’ll show my working below, but as a quick summary argument, in order to play high press football LFC need seven+ first team players. Or, we need to ponder whether the squad is in any way set up to play high press football. Whether the choices from the respective Directors of Football going back the last three+ years has actually been to move away from it, and that the second league title in the last 30 years was delivered by a team that did not play high press football. Another data point would be that one of the architects of the original high press, Pep Lijnders, could have been brought back to Anfield and Hughes and Edwards didn’t make any efforts to get him.

This is assuming Richard Hughes has any bloody clue as to what he’s doing and there even is a plan in place at all, as his track record across the last two years has been dreadful and Slot has carried the can for Hughes spending hundreds of millions to make the squad both significantly smaller and significantly worse.

I say this partly to explain why I have a degree of empathy for Slot, but also to question whether Liverpool will perform meaningfully differently next season. But Richard Hughes’ performance really is a masterclass in how to balls things up. Books could, and likely will be written on it.

In reviewing the current squad, at the back the club is (rightly) letting go of inconsistent Konate, and will likely retain Joe Gomez primarily as few clubs would pay cash for a player available on a free in 12 months anyway, especially one with that injury record. But that means the only senior centre back you can rely on is 35 years old.

When Jose returned to Chelsea, in order to use Terry effectively, he played a line so deep he effectively operated on the goal-line, but his long range passing and defensive nous easily won them the title. If you’re not going to do that, then the only defenders at the club capable of playing a high line required of pressing football are 19 and 20 years old, and neither will have played a competitive game for at least 6 months by the time the new seasons starts. The squad is that short, and that’s not even debating right-back issues.

At midfield, the only players capable of playing high press football are Szobozslai, Gravenberch and maybe Mac Allister, and the latter has a substantial asterisk on form and mobility. Wirtz, like many players from the Bundesliga, was totally overwhelmed when he joined the Prem, and Slot had to abandon playing him in the middle and farmed him out to the wing. He couldn’t even complete 90 minutes until Christmas.

Curtis Jones has a 45% tackle win rate, or 50% dual win rate, and remember it was Curtis Jones himself who made big statements about Slot arriving and his hoping a more controlled style would give him an opportunity that high press football rarely did. in ’22 Klopp needed Henderson, Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Milner, Lallana, and also had players like Keita and Ox who were strong in the press. The current squad is very short on that.

And then we have the front line. Ekitike is ruled out until January 2027, but even when he comes back, he displayed comparable issues to Wirtz. Couldn’t play twice in a week; rarely got to 90 minutes. Has legs skinner than David N’Gog. Excellent, excellent player, but he’s not a high-press forward. Isak only played meaningful minutes in 8 league games last year, so I have no clue if he is a high press forward, but I don’t think he is. Chiesa is unlikely to stay, but if he does I’d argue his complete inability to stay onside, and regular beratings from VVD and Szobozslai when he did play, suggests he may not be entirely effective as part of a tightly coached, high pressing unit. Three players, and a kid.

Between 2022 and 2025, Klopp and Slot had forwards like Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, and Cody Gakpo who could play high press football, competing for two places alongside Salah. The only one still here is the latter, and the ‘fans’ want him out. So irrespective that the club only have two forwards in Isak and Gakpo, and no wingers on their books at all other than a 17 year old, they can’t play high press football without significant investment. The squad is that short.

Liverpool have some excellent, excellent players. It is absolutely possible to get more out of them than Slot did. I think a proper pre-season not disrupted by grief, would correct the number of lost points in the final minutes of games due to fatigue. A set piece coach alone would add 10 points to the tally. But I can’t for the life of me see how any expectation on high press is possible without significant investment. And if the new guy requires significant investment, then surely the criticism of the last guy is ludicrously overblown? And if success is reliant on effective recruitment, why anyone can be confident when the guy doing it has not proved competent at all. Tom G

More fan mail for John Nicholson

Can the editor please ask John Nicholson to talk about how much he hates Mikel Arteta in his next column? I think there is still quite a lot of legs in this one. True, he’s done about 35 during the season, but I believe in John.

Anyway, it’s a far cry from his columns from circa 2008 when he talked about how much he hated Arsene Wenger’s football, how Arsenal should stop moaning about the purity of football and all types of football have their place. That’s when he wasn’t tipping 2004 Spurs to finish ahead of Arsenal that season. (Because Thierry Henry was Robbie Keane with a bit of pace). I’m almost nostalgic for when he wrote about touring with bands in the 1970s (almost).

Anyway, on to my main point. The parade on Sunday was incredible. Everything that is great about football and what it means to people. Every walk of life. Someone referred to it as like a working-class royal wedding, which I thought was great. It was the most diverse crowd you’ve probably ever seen and it was pure joy, despite the loss on Saturday night.

As much as I find a lot of John’s writing really grating, I have to say I like his politics. So why isn’t he taking a single week off from his weekly Mikel Arteta hate to celebrate this? Surely this is everything John would want, everything that is good in football? I hate to ask this John, but is this the wrong type of working class?

Also, brilliant work F365 with your ‘Eze and Gabriel bottle it’ headline. You’ve become everything you used to stand against. Daniel Storey and Nick Miller would be turning in their graves (thankfully they’re still with us because they’re two of the best writers around). Jaimie (Norf London forever) Kaffash, Arsenal (of course)

Never question the Arsenal style

Can I make a suggestion to all the mailboxers kvetching about Arsenal’s style of play?

Go and watch synchronised swimming, or some other judged sport where marks for execution actually matter.

One of the reasons the rest of us love football is because the winner is objectively measured, how good they looked doing it counts for the square root of f*ck all in the final analysis and, to borrow a line from Jean-Luc Picard, it’s possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. Richard (old enough to remember 1-0 To The Arsenal first time around) Pike

…Long-time reader, first-time writer. I generally do not pay heed to what other fans say, but of late, the divisiveness we unfortunately see everywhere else, seems to have found it’s way here as well.

Firstly, Arsenal scored 71 goals for the PL season, second only to Man City with 77. For all of Bruno’s incredible assisting, Man Utd. were at 69. The average possession was a frankly respectable 56%, only behind City, Chelsea and Liverpool (b/w 57-60%). Why the hate then?

1. General timewasting? – Hardly a new concept, it’s like saying the foreigners brought diving into the game. Been going on forever, hence the Premier League’s extra long injury time for the past couple of seasons

2. Setpiece shithousery – Yep, i’ll agree. While Saliba is more in the Rolls Royce category, Gabriel is certainly a dark artist of some note. But then again, I’ve been watching the premier league for years, and a lot of this stuff is not new. Shirt pulling? Blocking the goalkeeper’s view? Did you watch the premier league before this season?

And I’m probably going to sound like an old guy, but tactical fouls have been around forever too. The English just called it ‘taking one for the team’, ‘that had to be done’ and other Roy of the Rovers cliches.

Now coming to the open play deficiency, the major attacking axis of Saka, Timber/White and Odegaard hardly played together all season. The new striker did have a bedding in time, and performed better towards the end of the season.

I’m old enough to remember the Ferguson Wenger years, where they went toe to toe for a number of years and won multiple titles each. Jurgen Klopp for all of his heavy metal platitudes, won one 1 Premier League and 1 FA cup in his 8-9 years at ‘Pool. He did win the European cup, yes. Wenger stuck around for the Highbury to Emirates transition, selling everything shiny from the cupboard and still showing exciting football. We did not have any shithouse centerbacks in this period with gentlemen like Mertesacker, Vermaelen and Koscielny manning the backline. Hence, the Bantz era.

Maybe your club hasn’t been derided for years of punching above its weight competing with financially doped monsters like Chelsea and City. What did Arsenal shareholders do? Keep Usmanov at bay. Could have gone the other way but they didn’t. And this is the PSG(Ligue Un and the number of minutes their 11 played in the season, should certainly have dominated the final), Manchester City and Chelsea story.

How do you compete with people who can outspend you with impunity? You go to the dark side. That is what you do. And if you want to live your life tilting at windmills, without confronting your own darkness to help you move ahead, so be it. Archit Kashyap

…The mailbox is just beautiful right now. It’s still all Arsenal. Ultimately us Arsenal fans win every single argument. We won the league. We are the champions. We are the undisputed best team in England. Winning is all that matters. Keep everything coming, there is no point arguing with you, you’re in your own tearful echo chamber. Arsenal are premier league champions. If venting your anger at Arsenal makes you feel better about your own teams failings and uncertainty then go for it. It’s just wonderful. If you think about it all of us rival fans have far more in common than you’d care to admit – we’d be exactly the same if the shoe was on the other foot.

This is like two boxers who spout so much bile, arrogance and anger towards each other before a fight and then one gets knocked out – there is no comeback. For now you don’t win. We won and I’ll enjoy it all summer as I did at the excellent parade for players we love and a manager who we owe everything to.

Rival fans can spend the entire summer chewing that jealous wasp, getting so angry at Arsenal and Arteta and it just makes me smile even more. Consider an Arsenal fans summer – glorious, stress free, a burden lifted, reliving the title, and consider your summer – bitter, awake at night penning rants about Arteta in your mind, full of negativity, trying to goad and discredit Arsenal fans. Let me repeat. We win, we win until next season starts.

You’ll call me and this mail arrogant but it’s not. It’s enjoying my own team back as champions and relieved of any need to articulate an accurate defence against the lies and jealousy.

You said we’d be forgettable and no one would care about this title ha, you’re not even convincing yourself of that, you’re making sure this team is the unforgettables!

One quote to finish. Journalist Amy Lawrence wrote on Arteta…’external critics formed a caricature they choose not to see beyond, Arteta is not a manager they care to understand….but he has got Arsenal and Arsenal have got him’. Rich, AFC – Champions

Penalties are not a lottery

Just a rant from me. Seen quite a few people running the same excuse about penalties being a lottery and that really tugs my pubes because it just isn’t. A lottery is a completely random chance. Penalties are not random.

A penalty shoot out is which team is the better prepared. Have you got 11 players who are calm, confident and skilled enough to take a penalty?

Players who miss a penalty haven’t missed because they are “unlucky”. Look at the reactions to Eze’s penalty – Blaming the run up and the stutter step. The reactions to Gabriel’s penalty – He’s never taken one before, only scores with his head etc.

They missed their penalties for a myriad of reasons (confidence, timing, uncertainty, nerves). Not because they were unlucky. Unlucky would be if a seagull flew in, shat in their eyes and whilst they were clearing it the goal posts suddenly blew away from a gust of wind.

Likewise for Keepers. When Raya saved the penalty, are we saying he was “lucky” because he guessed right? Or was he better prepared, more confident or better at reading the players intentions?

Anyway, it easy to blame a penalty loss as a “lottery” rather than admitting that the penalty takers just weren’t good enough. Just trying to nip this in the bud before we crash out of the World Cup on penalties.. The Big Dog

The big question

With the domestic season over I think the main unresolved issue is whether Liverpool fans enjoy Arsenal’s style of play?

Perhaps some of you can write in and let everyone know? Martin from Rayleigh

Can we talk about the World Cup now?

In case anyone missed the mailbox the last few days, everyone hates Arsenal including some of their own fans and Arsenal fans don’t care which is why they write in numbers defending their team. Champion team, champion fans (and before you decide to slate me – yes I hate Arsenal but I also respect what Arteta has built over a sustained period, if only utd had considered a long term plan years ago – well done, maybe try enjoying it instead of picking fights).

Can we move on to chat about World Cup nonsense now please? Increased VAR responsibility and other changes look like it’s just going to increase the stoppages and ad breaks. Luckily most of the games are past my bedtime so I’ll only have to endure it for the England games I’ll bother to stay up for.

And yes, modern football is progressively getting more boring, flair players don’t defend enough to be useful and the amount of money involved means playing the percentages and pushing the limits of the laws are just about the only way to win things. Moaning won’t change things, rule changes might but no idea what other than cracking down on professional fouls and more protection of players trying to actually play football. Maybe the goals are too small in relation to how big keepers are these days (have they got bigger – no idea).