Andoni Iraola has seen enough of the heroic comebacks. Now he wants control.
Liverpool’s new manager, unbeaten but unconvincing from the opening whistle, has challenged his side to stop living on the edge as they prepare to face Fulham at Anfield. The pattern is clear: slow starts, big recoveries, and a level of jeopardy he has no interest in turning into a trademark.
Liverpool have fallen behind in three of Iraola’s first four games in charge. They clawed their way back to draws against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest, then finally enjoyed a more straightforward night with a 2-0 win over Ipswich, built on Alexander Isak’s ruthless double inside the first 10 minutes. A 2-1 comeback victory over Atletico Madrid followed, impressive on paper, but again achieved the hard way.
Iraola can see the positives. He just refuses to hide behind them.
“I think the team has goals in it,” he said, reflecting on a start to the season that has been as chaotic as it has been resilient. Liverpool have scored at least twice in every game under him and created enough chances to win most of them comfortably. The issue is not what happens when they click. It is what happens before they do.
They conceded twice against Newcastle. They conceded against Forest. They were chasing, again and again. The Ipswich game, when Isak struck early and Liverpool cruised, lingers in Iraola’s mind as the blueprint.
“We could have scored more in some of those games,” he admitted. “But now it’s about being more efficient. Not conceding the two goals against Newcastle, not conceding the goals against Forest, and also when the goals come because I think we are not starting too well in the games. We had the positive precedent of Ipswich and the games look much more comfortable when you start like this.”
The numbers back him up. Liverpool did not score a single first-half goal in their first two league matches. Only at Ipswich did they break the habit, Isak’s early brace finally giving them a platform instead of a problem.
The Atletico match underlined the frustration. Liverpool actually flew out of the blocks, carving out a clear opening for Alexis Mac Allister inside the first 15 seconds. He missed. The chance went, the narrative shifted, and once more they had to dig deep after falling behind.
“The other games, we started losing and then you have to do a lot of effort to come back,” Iraola said. “I would like obviously to score the first goal and then everything looks easier, but we need to have the right mentality.”
He knows how quickly perceptions change with a single early strike. “Against Atletico I think we had a chance after something like 15 seconds, Alex had a very clear chance to score and then everyone says ‘incredible start,’ you score and it changes,” he added. “But I think the start of the games is probably one of the parts where we can be a little bit better. In the second half we’ve normally been better, but I want to try and impose ourselves from the beginning because it becomes easier, everything.”
That demand for authority from the first whistle meets an intriguing subplot on the opposite bench.
Fulham arrive at Anfield under the guidance of Alvaro Arbeloa, the former Real Madrid defender taking on just the second managerial role of his career. He stepped into the hot seat at the Bernabeu in January, only to leave without a trophy and make way for Jose Mourinho. His new chapter at Craven Cottage has begun with three straight defeats to Chelsea, Sunderland, and Crystal Palace, and not a single point to show for his work.
On the surface, it looks bleak. Iraola is not buying that story.
“We have played just three Premier League games and to make big conclusions about any team, I think it’s too early, and I think Fulham is a great example,” he said. In his view, the table lies. “I think they have played well in the three games, honestly. They’ve lost the three games by one goal. I think if you see a lot of the stats they have and you don’t know the points they have, you will think they have five points at least because they’ve been controlling the games.”
So while the outside noise grows around Arbeloa, Iraola treats this as a dangerous fixture against an opponent whose performances have not matched their results.
The meeting also carries a personal edge. The two managers once shared a dressing room with Spain, vying for the same position on the right side of defence. Arbeloa, with his Real Madrid pedigree and major honours, ultimately enjoyed the higher profile at international level.
“I think we played maybe very few times together in the national team,” Iraola said when asked about their relationship. “We were fighting more or less for the same position, but I think he was more successful in that he played more games than me!”
Now they face each other not as full-backs competing for minutes, but as coaches trying to shape the direction of their seasons. Iraola, with an unbeaten record but a nagging concern about how his team begin games. Arbeloa, with no points but a body of work his opposite number clearly respects.
For Liverpool’s manager, the message is simple: keep the spirit, lose the drama. The comebacks have been thrilling. He would rather not need another one.
