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World Cup 2026 - Round 1 and

World Cup 2026 - Round 2

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Liverpool FC: Slotting Out

  • Thread starter KMC
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Ljonin

Well-Known Member
Iraola for me is the best coach in the PL. Him at Pool is a scary outlook. Think we have one maybe two more seasons to seize the momentum and really dominate
 

Sapient Hawk

Hates sharing cyberspace with Tets' bootlickers

Country: Saudi Arabia
Iraola for me is the best coach in the PL. Him at Pool is a scary outlook. Think we have one maybe two more seasons to seize the momentum and really dominate

He's a fantastic manager in the making but he's got a monumental rebuild ahead of him where he's expected by the rabid Scouse support to replace not only Van Dijk but also Salah. That alone is a task & a half.
 

Ljonin

Well-Known Member
He's a fantastic manager in the making but he's got a monumental rebuild ahead of him where he's expected by the rabid Scouse support to replace not only Van Dijk but also Salah. That alone is a task & a half.

I don’t know. Liverpool are a massive club with massive resources unfortunately. They’ll get the replacements needed. Maybe not immediately but it won’t take too long
 

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
Iraola for me is the best coach in the PL. Him at Pool is a scary outlook. Think we have one maybe two more seasons to seize the momentum and really dominate
He has been brilliant for Bournemouth. A really good coach who plays fantastic football. He had no business finishing so high with them even after he lost a lot of his best players.

However going from a small club to a big one everything changes. This is the part where countless potentially great managers fall down. It can't be underestimated what high expectations and pressure does to a manager.

There are so many examples of managers who seemed the be elite manager at a smaller club only to move to a bigger club and fail miserably. I thought Potter was a great manager at Brighton but when he moved to higher pressure roles he crumbled. Similarly I thought Frank was doing miracles at Brentford but when he moved to Sp**s he looked a different man. Moyes is another one. The thing is you can go on a bad run at a small club and no one bats an eyelid, which means you get the time and space to find a solution. At Bournemouth earlier in the season he went on a long winless run, that isn't a problem because the expectations are fairly low. When he went on a long unbeaten run he rightly got all the plaudits. Lose 2 or 3 games in a row at a big club and suddenly everyone is talking if you should be sacked, out of your depth, and won't get a minute without someone in the media/pundit/ex players questioning your methods and thus pressure building and building. And once you are in a little spin it is extremely hard to get back from that position.

Just to give you an example in difference in viewpoints. Bournemouth had their best ever season, their win percentage was still 35%. Slot was fired and everyone agreed he wasn't good enough for Liverpool. His league record reads 55% win percentage. Granted Liverpool has better players then Bournemouth so should be able to win more but this highlights the pressure free environment in a small club.

Ultimately not many managers are able to successfully make that step. Even someone like Emery who is in some ways a brilliant tactician has never been able to handle a big club. Give him medium or small club and he will produce miracles but the dynamics are completely different in the biggest clubs and he has never been able to overcome this.

Of course Iraola could turn out to be that rare manager who can handle this step up but history suggest it is quite rare. So I would advice you not to panic yet that he is going to sweep everything. Will be interesting though to revisit this thread exactly a year later and see how he has done.
 

Entropics

Established Member

Country: Colombia

Player:Saka
We're in for some fun if 100m flop Wirtz doesn't get on with Iraola or whoever their new manager will be. He bought into Pool idea thanks to Slot and as much as Slot tried to make it happen it arguably failed.
 

Kuroske

Well-Known Member
He has been brilliant for Bournemouth. A really good coach who plays fantastic football. He had no business finishing so high with them even after he lost a lot of his best players.

However going from a small club to a big one everything changes. This is the part where countless potentially great managers fall down. It can't be underestimated what high expectations and pressure does to a manager.

There are so many examples of managers who seemed the be elite manager at a smaller club only to move to a bigger club and fail miserably. I thought Potter was a great manager at Brighton but when he moved to higher pressure roles he crumbled. Similarly I thought Frank was doing miracles at Brentford but when he moved to Sp**s he looked a different man. Moyes is another one. The thing is you can go on a bad run at a small club and no one bats an eyelid, which means you get the time and space to find a solution. At Bournemouth earlier in the season he went on a long winless run, that isn't a problem because the expectations are fairly low. When he went on a long unbeaten run he rightly got all the plaudits. Lose 2 or 3 games in a row at a big club and suddenly everyone is talking if you should be sacked, out of your depth, and won't get a minute without someone in the media/pundit/ex players questioning your methods and thus pressure building and building. And once you are in a little spin it is extremely hard to get back from that position.

Just to give you an example in difference in viewpoints. Bournemouth had their best ever season, their win percentage was still 35%. Slot was fired and everyone agreed he wasn't good enough for Liverpool. His league record reads 55% win percentage. Granted Liverpool has better players then Bournemouth so should be able to win more but this highlights the pressure free environment in a small club.

Ultimately not many managers are able to successfully make that step. Even someone like Emery who is in some ways a brilliant tactician has never been able to handle a big club. Give him medium or small club and he will produce miracles but the dynamics are completely different in the biggest clubs and he has never been able to overcome this.

Of course Iraola could turn out to be that rare manager who can handle this step up but history suggest it is quite rare. So I would advice you not to panic yet that he is going to sweep everything. Will be interesting though to revisit this thread exactly a year later and see how he has done.
What also needed to point out is that coaches from midtables clubs does not play against a low block every game. Even bottom feeder clubs are much more open to attack against for example Bournmouth which results in more space to attack.
 

Yousif Arsenal

Was on Vinai's payroll; misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Its obviously different test expectations and the media isn't same few poor results and its dark unlike Bournemouth that even if he go 5 games losing run they won't care but Iraola is guy who knows how to prepare against Mikel he won 3 times against him in 6 attempts so Mikel really need to prepare even harder against his friend
 

2Smokeyy

Standin' On Bihness! 💯

Country: England


Will be interesting to see how he does there especially as there will be more eyes on him, week in, week out.
 

Gooner Zig

AM's Resident Accountant

Country: Canada
Iraola for me is the best coach in the PL. Him at Pool is a scary outlook. Think we have one maybe two more seasons to seize the momentum and really dominate

It all depends on how quickly they can address their massive squad imbalances. They are stacked in the forward areas but

- Konate, Robertson have left
- Kirkez and Frimpong (especially) have not been good
- Big question marks on whether that Italian CB + Jacquet will be able to perform at a title winning level
- VvD another year on, was showing big signs of decline just this season
- Can MacAllister rediscover his form

There's just far too many question marks over them.
 

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Premier League - Live Table

Team P W D L Goals GD Pts
1
Arsenal
Arsenal
W W W W W L
38 26 7 5 71:27 +44 85
2
Manchester City
Manchester City
L D W W D W
38 23 9 6 77:35 +42 78
3
Manchester United
Manchester United
W W D W W W
38 20 11 7 69:50 +19 71
4
Aston Villa
Aston Villa
W W D L L W
38 19 8 11 56:49 +7 65
5
Liverpool
Liverpool
D L D L W W
38 17 9 12 63:53 +10 60
6
Bournemouth
Bournemouth
D D W W D W
38 13 18 7 58:54 +4 57
7
Sunderland
Sunderland
W W D D L L
38 14 12 12 42:48 -6 54
8
Brighton
Brighton
L L W L W D
38 14 11 13 52:46 +6 53
9
Brentford
Brentford
D D L W L D
38 14 11 13 55:52 +3 53
10
Chelsea
Chelsea
L W D L L L
38 14 10 14 58:52 +6 52
11
Fulham
Fulham
W D L L W D
38 15 7 16 47:51 -4 52
12
Newcastle
Newcastle
L W D W L L
38 14 7 17 53:55 -2 49
13
Everton
Everton
L L D D L L
38 13 10 15 47:50 -3 49
14
Leeds
Leeds
L W D W D W
38 11 14 13 49:56 -7 47
15
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace
L D L D L L
38 11 12 15 41:51 -10 45
16
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest
D L D W W W
38 11 11 16 48:51 -3 44
17
Tottenham
Tottenham
W L D W W D
38 10 11 17 48:57 -9 41
18
West Ham
West Ham
W L L L W D
38 10 9 19 46:65 -19 39
19
Burnley
Burnley
D L D L L L
38 4 10 24 38:75 -37 22
20
Wolves
Wolves
D D L D L L
38 3 11 24 27:68 -41 20
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