BREAKING! IRAOLA NEW LIVERPOOL MANAGER!

Hello, everybody.Welcome to That's Football.I'm Mark Goldbridge.Big news this morning.Iriola is the new manager of Liverpool Football Club.Fabrizio Romano, here we go.

Liverpool reach agreement in principle to appoint Iriola as new manager.Here we go.Exclusive story from Saturday.

100 % confirmed.Slot left and Iriola will lead the new Liverpool project as expected.Talks advanced over the last 48 hours and deal in place.I mean, there was some talks of private jets to Paris and stuff like that.I mean, I think maybe some Liverpool fans were hopefully not believing that Luis Enrique would leave PSG on two Champions League titles to join them.

Look, I'm sure Luis Enrique would consider Liverpool if he was looking to leave PSG.But this is a very good deal for Liverpool.And, you know, it's very difficult to praise Liverpool as a fan of Manchester United, who, you know, Liverpool is our biggest rival.So, you know, As a Liverpool fan, you would not want us to do well and I don't want you to do well.I wanted you to keep slots and I'm sure you wanted us to keep managers that we got rid of that weren't doing very well.

But I, as I said at the weekend, I actually did a tweet and I've been talking about it for a long time.I think Iriola is the most exciting manager in the Premier League this season.And now that Pep's left, They have the longest unbeaten record in Europe, which I don't think gets mentioned enough.He put Bournemouth into Europe when a lot of people said last summer, the players that they lost to Real Madrid and obviously Semenyu left in the winter, Kyrgz to Liverpool.They actually got better.And I think so much of that debt is down to coaching.

There is this ignorance that it's too big of a step.But in coaching, you start somewhere and you end somewhere.If you do well, there has to be the progression.

It's like a player, isn't it?If you're a player that plays for Blackburn Rovers like Adam Wharton, Crystal Palace can't say, oh, we're not going to sign you.just because he might not be able to do it.

Iriola deserved better than the jobs that he was being linked to.Crystal Palace, Leverkusen, AC Milan.I think he deserved better than that.I think he deserved the Chelsea job, the Man United job or the Liverpool job.And it's ended up that Liverpool, who have got Iriola, maybe get the best deal.You know, Alonso was Chelsea first, Man United Carrick second, Iriola last to do, you know, remove Slott and bring him in.

His football is incredible.They use wingers.They create chances.They play a high line.

It's front foot football.It's more in keeping with the rock and roll that Klopp described it than the pragmatism that they've seen under Slott.Of course, there's a risk.There's always a risk.I mean, if the players don't take to him, if the if the club is too big, But I think the situation for Iriola is that he's clearly a workaholic.You have to be to make a club like Bournemouth do the things they've done.

I think there's a huge hint there, by the way.The unbeaten record, that's an indication of a manager and a coaching setup that is on it.Records are sustainable.There's something that keep happening, unbeaten records, whatever it is.It's something you have to, you know, it's consistency and consistency is hard work and hard work comes from the coach.So he's got that.

Stylistically, it's in the Premier League.Bournemouth wouldn't be in anybody's top 10, really, but they always are.And, you know, to have a style of play that's respected in the Premier League, you can't just do it against the bottom half.You've got to do it against the top half.And he's done that.So it's a consistent style of play.

And there is also coupled with that a relentless rotation of players because he has to sell to survive.So he's going to go into Liverpool with a bigger budget, a more settled team where he doesn't have tokeep changing his, you know, half of his team every summer.And the core principles of knowing what it takes to be unbeaten, knowing what it takes to consistently play good football.

And also a very adaptable coach.When you look at Bournemouth at home last season, they had one of the best defences in the league.When you look at Bournemouth away, they conceded more goals than most teams in the league.They weren't crap away from home, by the way.

It was a stylistic thing.Away from home, they'd have a go and they're quite open.And at home, they were a little bit more like, you know, defensively sound, not cat parking the bus, I must add.So I think you've got a very tact.And I think in the modern day, a coach has to be tactically adaptable as well.The big thing for Liverpool now is going to be, and it's exciting, is going to be what they do in the market.

I was reading an article this morning in The Athletic that was going through every team and what they're going to do.With Man City, it's like Anderson and Tonali.With Man United, there's three or four players.With Arsenal, there's three or four players.With Liverpool, it's like, well, they'll try and move Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott on.

And they have been linked to Jan Diamonde, but the price is very expensive.And that was it.And you're sort of like, well, this is the thing about Liverpool.What are they going to do?Will he go to Bournemouth and take players from there?You know, Alex Scott, Krupi, maybe Rayanne, although that's a very, very big release clause.

I can't see that's going to happen.Will they stick going for Diamonde?I don't think a lot of those Liverpool players suit the way Iriola is going to want to play.So if they don't back in with players, It's a longer project.How much money do Liverpool have?I think they've got money.

You know what?

It worries me as a United fan, if I'm being completely honest, because I think stylistically, if this works, Liverpool are going to be a very good team to watch.And that's part of the puzzle, isn't it?If you're a good team to watch, you do tend to get results.I've never really, maybe Leeds.Leeds were a good team to watch and didn't always win under Bielsa.But normally, if you're a good team to watch, you're winning games as well.

There will need to be patience, but I think Liverpool's fan base is pretty good at that.You know, Arne Slott probably deserved to be sacked and there wasn't masses of noise about Slott out from Liverpool.They're not really that close.There was a lot of Liverpool fans who felt he should go, but it never really got going to the point that maybe it should have done.So he will get the patience.I think it's interesting.

I wouldn't say it's similar to Klopp, but in a way it is. I think he has a style of football, as I said, that's really easy on the eye.He's a methodical coach.He's a hardworking coach.He's a young coach.And you know what?

I heard somebody say the other day, Liverpool look a bit stupid because they missed out on Xabi Alonso, who is now at Chelsea, because they thought they were going to keep slot.And you do have to acknowledge that, right?As I've said before, Liverpool definitely did think they were going to keep slot for a long time.

Because if they didn't, they'd have been more prepared in the transfer market and they'd have been more prepared in a replacement.They were clearly thinking about keeping slot and then realised it probably wasn't the right thing to do.But fair play for that.You know, I would applaud Liverpool's board for that, by the way.

It's one thing to make a mistake.It's another thing to double down on it.At least they made a mistake and then rectified it quickly, even though they knew they'd end up with a bit of egg on their face.But funnily enough, I actually think, and look, time will be the great healer here.There's this weird triangle going on, right?Man United and Chelsea turn down Iriola.

If Iriola does well at Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United have the first opportunity.Like, Iriola could be Man United manager and he could be Chelsea manager.And that's not because Iriola chose them over Liverpool, that's because Liverpoolthat point were keeping slot.Liverpool weren't there.

So if Man United had offered him the job, he probably would have took it.If Chelsea had offered him the job, he probably would have took it.

So if Iriola does better at Liverpool than Chelsea and Man United, but if Xabi Alonso does better at Chelsea than Iriola, Liverpool look stupid because they could have got rid of slot earlier.So there's this weird sort of triangle going on.I personally think Iriola suits Liverpool better than Xabi Alonso now, because Xabi Alonso, three at the back, is the best he's performed in his short career at Leverkusen.Whereas Iriola is a back four.It's less work to turn that Liverpool team into an Iriola team than it would be to turn it into a Xabi Alonso team.So I think in the short term, Iriola is probably the right appointment in my mind.

Let me know your thoughts.Smash a like on the video and subscribe and I will speak to you on the next one.Take care.