Iraola’s preference is to name the team on the morning of the game and he saves the post-match debrief with his players for the day after the match.
There is a sense of pragmatism with his media interactions, too, after a situation where his comments to LFC TV following a pre-season friendly against Monaco were widely reported.
Iraola conceded Liverpool had run out of steam after 30 minutes and did not have the energy levels at the time to play with the intensity that he wants. It wasn’t meant to be a dig at his players – rather an admittance that they were working on building that intensity up.
But there is a realisation that at a club like Liverpool, every word you say can end up shared across social media and taken in a different way than you meant. That said, Iraola comes across as calm in his news conferences and open to discussion.
It is very much a case of Iraola adapting to the club as much as the other way round.
One of the main reasons they went for Iraola was his ability to develop young talent and the average age of Liverpool‘s players in the Premier League this season is 25.3 – only five teams have a lower average.
Youngsters like Rio Ngumoha, 18, Trey Nyoni, 19, and Koumas, 20, all started against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup and all three will play bigger roles this season than last.
Intensity is a buzzword under Iraola and that is a non-negotiable but he is already aware that, with such a brutal schedule, Liverpool will need to find ways to adapt and occasionally win games with a set-piece or an individual moment of brilliance.
Going into this weekend, they have made the most sprints in the Premier League but looked flat against Fulham last weekend in a goalless draw, less than 72 hours after beating Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Sunday’s game against Bournemouth will be a fourth in 12 days and, after the international break, Liverpool have a spell of four games in 10 days. Between 11 October and 7 November, they will play nine times.
Iraola would no doubt have had a smile seeing Bournemouth win on their Europa League bow against Real Sociedad on Thursday, in the Basque region where he grew up.
Perhaps he will have a moment on the flight down from Liverpool on Saturday to think about how far he has come.
Liverpool haven’t exactly had a dream start under Iraola but they are yet to lose. Becoming a team that is hard to beat is undoubtedly a step in the right direction after 12 league losses last term, but as vice-captain Alisson said last week, draws aren’t good enough for Liverpool.
And Iraola, who is unbeaten in the Premier League since January across his two clubs, knows that a win on familiar territory on Sunday would be the perfect way to head into the international break.
