- 6 weeks ago
Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola on Liverpool transfer's and Nottingham Forest preview
27/08/2026
AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, UK
27/08/2026
AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, UK
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00:14As you know, we are trying to sign in that position and also, as you know, we cannot
00:21talk about players that right now are not ours, but it's evident that we are trying
00:28to improve or try to fill that position because we don't have the numbers and I hope we can
00:35have good news soon, but we are still not there.
00:39I know we spoke about Cody Gakpo the other day, but whether you get one winger in or two
00:44wingers, what is the future for him?
00:46What guarantee can you give that he will be here beyond the deadline?
00:50I can say what I said the past week and even after the performance he had in the first
00:55game, I say the same again, he's playing very well for us, he's been very good since
01:02he came back from the World Cup after the holidays, very good attitude and I hope we can keep him
01:11at that level because I think he's been very influential in our games.
01:18No, no, you know, when the market is open, you know, we have 20 a lot players or almost
01:2530 players, you cannot guarantee anything with anyone and you never know who is going
01:29to arrive.
01:31I would like to know how the market finishes and then we finish with this one, this one
01:35and this one, but I don't know.
01:37I don't know what's going to happen with any of our players.
01:40I cannot guarantee anything, you know, and you think I can smell what we are going to
01:46sign or what positions, but after experience shows you that there is an opportunity last
01:52day and you think, OK, it improves us, let's take it.
01:55Let's talk about football and looking ahead to this game against Strasbourg Forest, what
01:59balance do you feel you need to find between that attacking threat that you obviously have
02:04and keeping things tighter at the back?
02:06Yeah, that's the key.
02:07You said the balance, you know, because you don't want to lose this, the offensive side,
02:11the fluidity, the arrivals with numbers, but obviously we were punished the other day,
02:17you know, especially in the first goal.
02:19I think we don't do a proper lockdown and I think we've been definitely working on it.
02:27It's nothing new from, like, we've started this week, it's something that we always want
02:32to control, but there is a balance.
02:37We cannot go from one way where we send a lot of people forward to after, no, we keep
02:42everyone so we don't arrive with numbers, everything looks very stale and I think it's a matter
02:47of identifying the situation.
02:51You cannot be with the joystick every time with the player, no, they smell, there are players
02:55that are very good, smelling, okay, there is real danger, I can take the risk of going,
03:00now I think I have to stay and this is also the quality of the player, no, who takes those
03:07decisions.
03:09Don, you mentioned the potential of the Bokola deal, last week you talked about the possibility
03:14of two players coming in, possibly even three, if you were able to put a number on your confidence
03:20level of getting not just Bokola but perhaps one more, where do you sit with that?
03:27I don't know what's going to happen, you know, it's not, we have to be patient for
03:31another, even myself, for another four or five days and then we will know and then I will
03:36be comfortable the 1st of September or the 2nd in this case when they tell me, okay, this
03:41is who we are, this is the options we have and then we can really start thinking, okay,
03:48then we might start thinking in the players in these positions but right now we don't
03:52know, I have in my head, you know what I want, we've been talking not now, since the beginning
03:59with the club and they all know also what we want and then it's a matter of closing the
04:06deals.
04:07Personally, you've managed some huge occasions in Europe, of course, this weekend you'll
04:11step out at Anfield in the Premier League as Liverpool manager, is that moment lost on
04:17you and what kind of emotions spring to mind when you think about what might happen walking
04:22out of it?
04:23No, it's definitely a special moment for me, to play your first Premier League game at Anfield,
04:31I think I already felt it in pre-season, so when the competition starts for me it's going
04:37to be a… I will be thinking on the game and the things that I need to think but I
04:42think
04:42it's going to be emotional and I think it has to be like this, you know, it's a special place,
04:48I've had to fight a lot to arrive to this place and I hope, you know, everything goes
04:54well and I can enjoy also the game.
04:56And in terms of Nottingham Forest, what do you expect from an Oliver Glasner side who has
05:00suffered back-to-back defeats in the Open 2 competitive pitches?
05:03Yes, I think he has been very successful, here we know him from the Premier League, we've
05:10played against each other quite a lot and you can see straight away the shape, they don't
05:16concede a lot of chances, the other day against Leeds was a very tight game, not a lot of
05:24chances and Leeds won because they scored a free kick in the 90th minute but probably
05:28Forest even had more chances than Leeds until that moment and we will have to earn every
05:34chance, they don't give you nothing for free, you have to be very good on the ball, be patient
05:43sometimes because they defensively are very solid, very good and after they have also
05:53very good players up front like every Premier League team and we have to control those situations,
05:59especially as you said in your first questions in the transitions because they also have good
06:05threats in the counter.
06:08Andoni, I know it's only the first league game last weekend and you've spoken about
06:13getting the balance right, in terms of defensive responsibility for your midfielders and you
06:20said there the players can sense, they can sniff out what's happening, have you needed to
06:25give them instructions after what happened last week to let them know they can't all go
06:30at once?
06:30And is there various trigger points for them to be able to see when one goes and when one
06:35sits?
06:36Because not everybody can go at the same time.
06:39Yeah, obviously we cannot talk with everyone and then leave everyone at the back, but also
06:44there is a balance there.
06:46I don't want to tell Ryan Gravenberg, don't carry the ball and don't arrive to the box because
06:52I think he scored, we scored against Monaco, the goal we scored, I think it's 1-2.
06:58It's Gravenberg, Soboslai and then a pass to Alex and he scores.
07:01And no one asks me, why are you leaving Ryan Gravenberg and Soboslai there on the edge both
07:07together?
07:08No, they said, woof, incredible goal, lovely goal, you know.
07:10There is a balance there.
07:11There is a recognizing the situations from the others also, how we can balance those numbers
07:19with other positions, but sometimes you have to accept.
07:26And I don't want to keep all the time the players also like, woof, I'm opposite half,
07:31I have to stay here, like one full-back goes, the other has to stay there.
07:35No, no, because one has gone, I have to stay here.
07:38Depending on the situation, depending on where is your position, if your position is also
07:43very low, we have the numbers at the back, probably safer to go.
07:47If they are kind of leaving players in behind, we have to be careful.
07:52Recognizing those situations is the job we have to do now, yes.
07:56What steps do you think you can take to sort of allow the players and the players you've
08:01got and the talent they have to exert more control?
08:05If you look at the game last week statistically, it was all Liverpool, but if you look at the
08:11game and you were there and saw it, it didn't feel like that.
08:16I felt we controlled the game honestly quite well the other day.
08:20Obviously you can see two transitions and you can tell me no, but you can see, it's true.
08:24But I think we had a meaningful possession.
08:26Sometimes you have possession. I felt like we were quite direct in our attack.
08:31We stayed most of our games very far.
08:37And I was feeling during the games, sometimes you feel, I was always feeling we are closer
08:43to scoring than Newcastle are in most part of the games.
08:48But it's true that you don't win, you draw 2-2 and you cannot change this.
08:53But I felt we did a lot of good things in the first game.
08:58Karl?
09:00Sorry to ask about individual players again, but no Chiesa or Elliott in last year.
09:05Yes.
09:05They've obviously not played a lot of football over the last year.
09:08How do you view their futures?
09:10There are different circumstances.
09:12Fed is not available.
09:14He felt the game against Como, he felt something at the back and it's a small muscle injury and
09:21he's not available and I think with Harvey, with Chambers, with some of the players that
09:28I decide because I can only choose 20 to leave them out, I think it's a matter of finding
09:34the balance on the bench.
09:36And in Harvey's case, I think he's trying.
09:39He's trying, he's improving every week, he's improving, but I still prefer other options.
09:48No, probably I was in doubt with James McConnell in terms of getting into the squad and I decided
09:56to put James in the squad, but we never know.
10:01It's another new week, new chances for everyone and they have to keep that mentality.
10:10Andy, you obviously, strengthening those wide areas has been a priority also.
10:16Is that sort of the extent of the business you expect to do or are there other areas of
10:20the squad that you ideally would like to do?
10:25The question mark is what you say, ideally.
10:28Ideally is the magic word, no?
10:31At the end, there are certain things that you can do, certain things that we don't know if we can
10:36do.
10:39But it's true that the priority has been strength in the wide areas.
10:43Still we have four or five days.
10:47I'm sure if we can improve other areas, we will, but I don't know how the market is going to
10:54finish.
10:54So I cannot tell you I have to be patient the same as you.
10:59I want to know, believe me, it's very uncomfortable for me because you are dealing with uncertainties all the time.
11:06But we have to wait four or five days and then we will know what we have and make proper
11:12plans, yes.
11:15Hi, Anthony. I want to ask you, in relation to the issues you have in the field against Newcastle,
11:21have you been slightly surprised by the reaction to it?
11:23Because it is very early on in your tenure and there seems to be quite an extreme reaction of people
11:29definitively sure that this configuration with these players can't work.
11:33Have you been surprised by that?
11:36Not surprised. I expected when I came here that everything is going to be magnified and for the good and
11:43for the bad.
11:44And I think I'm starting to understand everything that happens.
11:50But it's just one game where I think we did a lot of very good things.
11:55Even those players in the midfield, they did very good things.
11:58There are definitely things that we need to improve, like we talked about the goals we conceded.
12:05But I have no doubt that they are all top players, very good players.
12:11And now it's a matter of myself, my coaching staff, the players, how we can maximise the potential,
12:18the level of the players we have there in the midfield because you analyse one by one and they are
12:23all very, very good players.
12:25And are you surprised also with the focus on the team? Because essentially it's a system that's going to require
12:33all 11 players to get used to it.
12:36Yeah, but it's football. At the end we go to the goals, always. If you make the same mistake, exactly
12:45the same mistake,
12:46but Lengar doesn't score that goal, we would be talking about, I don't know, if we conceded a set play,
12:52about set plays.
12:53Because now the set plays and this. So when you conceded two goals because of the transition, it's easy and
12:59it's normal and I understand.
13:01We have to talk about the defensive transitions. I think we improved during the game, even in that aspect.
13:09I think second half we were much, much better in terms of leaving the numbers, the proper players behind.
13:18And I think the first goal probably is more to blame than the second one in terms of how we
13:25position when we lose the ball.
13:27And I hope we can continue and then we speak less about these problems. There will be something else.
13:32As I said, we will be talking about something else. But I understand it's the first game of the season.
13:38We don't win because of these mistakes and we are talking about these defensive transitions. It's normal.
13:44Do you add on that?
13:48Just if one or two wide attacking players come in, as you mentioned, would you be satisfied with the squad
13:53depth?
13:55Yes, I didn't get the first part.
14:06It will depend on the rest of the positions, on what we find in the rest of the position, who
14:11is leaving in the rest of the position.
14:13I think you have to be looking at the overall picture. It's not just in this position on the other
14:19one.
14:19I think we know from the beginning, I think our demands, I think the first day I arrived here, I
14:29told you a little bit.
14:30It's the wingers because we lost especially Mo Salah from past season and then tricky situations with the players that
14:37we have in long-term injuries.
14:38We are probably down a player there in some positions and those have been our main issues.
14:47But if we can improve in other areas also, we will.
14:53Hi, Antoni. How impressed were you with Jeremy Jacquet's Premier debut last week?
14:58And how do you see his partnership with Virgil van Dijk developing this season?
15:03I think overall he played very well, considering it's his first game.
15:09Also, basically 45 minutes of pre-season. It's true that he finished tired.
15:13We had to stop him because I was feeling the last five minutes on the pitch.
15:19He was tired and you can feel especially with centre-backs.
15:24But he's been very confident on the ball, good without the ball and he's very young, new signing.
15:32For sure he will make some mistakes, we'll have to accept this, but he's performing for me and training very
15:37well.