Don’t become the protagonist — Andoni Iraola on Spain’s coaching secret and his role at Liverpool
Andoni Iraola has begun life as Liverpool’s head coach on the club’s pre-season tour in Chicago and is already setting out the principles he intends to use to reshape the Reds’ identity. Over conversations in the team hotel he framed a single, recurring idea as central to the recent wave of Spanish and Basque coaching success: the collective.
Seated in Liverpool’s plush hotel in Chicago, Iraola expanded on a theory he says explains the recent dominance of coaches from the Basque country and Spain and which will guide his work at Anfield. He described an approach that focuses on shared responsibility and group cohesion rather than individual protagonism. That philosophy, he suggested, will underpin his efforts to “bring the connection, the joy and the belief back to Anfield.” His arrival in the summer sees him settle into the routines of a pre-season tour while beginning to impose his vision on the playing group.
He pointed to a striking concentration of honours among Basque and Spanish coaches to illustrate his point: the Champions League, the Premier League, the Europa League, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the European Championship and, as of Sunday, the World Cup are all currently held by coaches from those regions. Iraola noted that this pattern persists despite changes at the top level of some clubs. He acknowledged that, even if Pep Guardiola has since taken his leave from Manchester City, the list of trophies still underscores the wider trend he is describing.
Iraola also highlighted a narrower regional phenomenon inside Spain: next season four men from the small Gipuzkoa province will sit in charge of four of the Premier League’s principal contenders, himself included. He uses that concentration as further evidence for his central claim about collective culture producing coaching success. Rather than credit a single tactical innovation or a charismatic figurehead, Iraola attributes the rise to shared cultural approaches to preparation, communication and leadership among those coaches.
The coach’s perspective was offered in conversational terms as he adapts to life away from his home environment and into the rhythms of a major club’s summer schedule. In Chicago, amid training sessions and meetings, he has begun to map out how the collective idea will influence daily work at Liverpool: selection, coaching drills, and the relationship between staff and players. Iraola stressed that the aim is not simply a tactical reset but a cultural one, with the intent of restoring the intangible elements he regards as vital to success at Anfield.
Iraola’s role at Liverpool, as he set it out, goes beyond match-day decisions to include shaping the club’s identity on and off the pitch. He intends his methods to permeate the dressing room and the training ground so that responsibility and purpose are shared across the squad. Those intentions link back to his diagnosis of Basque and Spanish coaching methods: a preference for collective clarity over individual elevation, which he believes breeds sustained performance and resilience.
The coach’s statements in Chicago serve as an early blueprint for what he hopes to achieve at Liverpool. By foregrounding group cohesion and a distributed model of leadership, Iraola has signalled the priorities he will pursue during the coming season. Whether that approach restores the connection and confidence he seeks at Anfield will be measured by results and by how effectively his ideas take hold within the club.