Andoni Iraola sat down with the club’s media team and spoke about a wide range of topics ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League clash against Manchester City.
The Spaniard has quickly endeared himself to the Anfield faithful with his brand of football and personality, which could prove to be invaluable.
And now, ahead of the game against Enzo Maresca’s side, Iraola has made a claim on Liverpool’s brand of football that will come as music to the ears of the Anfield faithful.
Andoni Iraola wants Liverpool to be more expressive
The new Reds boss spoke about how he wants his teams to be more expansive on the pitch, citing examples from the game against Newcastle United earlier this season.
“I think the goal is quite clear and I think everyone understands what we are trying to build,” said Iraola via Liverpool’s official website.
“Try to be more intense, more vertical, but also you want to control the games and you don’t want the games to become… for example, I think in Newcastle we played a good game but probably we conceded two goals in transition [and] you want to control a little bit more of the games.
“I think lately we’ve been controlling the games much more but we lacked a little bit [of] this offensive fluidity that we had in the first game. So, now it’s a matter of balancing this a little.
“Obviously we want to attack very well and defend very well. But sometimes you have to choose or you have to adapt the team to what you prefer or what is the requirements of a specific game. And we are trying to balance all this.”
And finally, when asked if he’d prefer his team to win 4-3 or 1-0, the Spaniard has a rather bold response.
“I said it, I prefer to win 4-3 because at the end you win the game the same way and the game has been more entertaining.
“But sometimes you win 1-0 [and] I take it!”
