Iraola’s Man to Man Liverpool Demands Are Already Clear to His Players

Andoni Iraola has only recently begun shaping Liverpool in his image, yet the language coming from the dressing room already offers a revealing picture of what that image might eventually become.

Speaking on the Reds Roundtable podcast, Ryan Gravenberch, Milos Kerkez and Dominik Szoboszlai discussed the early weeks under Liverpool’s new head coach. Again and again, the conversation returned to intensity, pressing, responsibility and Iraola’s preference for going man to man.

For Gravenberch, the tactical change is already obvious.

“He’s a manager like want to press always like full intensity and always want to go men against men. So it’s different, but I like it.”

That may be the simplest description yet of the direction Liverpool are travelling.

Iraola brings intensity to Liverpool

Kerkez knows Iraola better than most after spending two years working with him at Bournemouth, and his description of the manager centred on physical demands.

“The intensity the level he wants us to play like for whole 90 minutes. He wants us to run, you know, to press a lot and to show it.”

There is nothing particularly ambiguous there. Iraola wants Liverpool pressing, running and maintaining aggression across the full match.

Kerkez added: “We have to listen and we have we have to run a lot. But if you if you run run a lot and play like that, I think we have a good chance like Don said and to compete in for everything.”

Szoboszlai was similarly clear about what Liverpool’s training now looks like.

“The training sessions are hard and long. I think we need this. That’s the only case you can use this in the game as well because we want to be aggressive, we want to be intense, we want to run more than the other team.”

His next line perhaps mattered even more: “The words are sometimes useless if you don’t do it.”

Man to man approach changes demands

Gravenberch’s reference to Iraola wanting to go “men against men” provides a particularly interesting insight.

A man to man approach places obvious demands on Liverpool players without the ball, and the Dutch midfielder suggested the competition within training has become similarly unforgiving.

“If you do it well done if you don’t I think the next one going to get the chance and from there on you are one step back,” he said.

Gravenberch welcomed that environment because “everybody’s competing with everyone”.

That competition fits with Kerkez’s recollection of working with Iraola previously. “I spent two years with him in Bournemouth and it was really growing years for me,” he said.

Liverpool are therefore hearing the message from somebody who already understands what Iraola expects.

Szoboszlai demands Liverpool responsibility

Perhaps the strongest contribution on the Reds Roundtable came from Szoboszlai when discussing how much time Liverpool should require to adapt.

“We’ve directly felt that he he’s here to to compete for everything,” he said. “Everybody is talking about us like new player, new coach, but at the end we are Liverpool.”

There was also recognition that the relationship between coach and players remains a developing one.

“I would say we try to know the manager he tries to know us how to use the players where to use them, how to become like a like a team that’s not only with the ball is also most of the time against the ball.”

Gravenberch agreed: “The manager, I think it takes also time for him to make some adjustments, where we can play best in terms of on the ball, off the ball. But I think we getting there.”

Liverpool players know what comes next

Szoboszlai ultimately returned to responsibility. Liverpool cannot indefinitely point towards change as an explanation.

“I think is enough to speak about we need time,” he said.

“At one point we have to we have to take the responsibility and stop taking excuses because we are Liverpool FC. We don’t have 3 years to renew everybody and then start again.”

His conclusion was emphatic: “So I think it starts now and we are there again.”

That feels like the central message from the Reds Roundtable. Iraola wants intensity. He wants Liverpool pressing. He wants man to man commitment. His players know precisely what is being demanded of them, and Szoboszlai, Gravenberch and Kerkez all made clear that those demands are already being felt on the training ground.