A year ago, Andoni Iraola walked into Anfield as a visiting manager, watching his Bournemouth side fall to defeat on the opening night of the Premier League season as Liverpool began what looked like a title defence under Arne Slot. Twelve months on, the roles have reversed dramatically: Iraola now sits in the Liverpool hot seat, and this weekend he returns to Dorset to face the Cherries he once led for three years.
The Basque coach's Liverpool side remain unbeaten in the league, though they trail the pace Slot's team set at this stage last season by six points. It is still early days for Iraola's tenure, but there are signs he is settling into life at Merseyside both on and off the pitch. Like former Liverpool bosses Jurgen Klopp and Brendan Rodgers before him, Iraola has made his home in Formby, where he has reportedly been seen enjoying the coastal cycling routes and occasional trips into the city centre.
His work ethic, however, is most visible on the training ground. Colleagues at Liverpool describe him as a hands-on coach who works six days a week, often the first to arrive and personally lay out cones before sessions. Forward Lewis Koumas captured the shift in intensity under the new regime, saying: "It's really intense. There's a lot of hard work and no sort of light days. Everyone's putting in 100%."
There is a broader sense within the club that turning the page from last season's disappointing campaign — which included 12 league defeats — was overdue, regardless of who was in charge. Iraola operates with a notably low-key presence around Liverpool's Kirkby training base, frequently working from the coaches' room alongside his backroom staff, including Tommy Elphick, Shaun Cooper and Pablo de la Torre, the latter having followed him from Rayo Vallecano via Bournemouth.
Adapting to the demands of a club competing on multiple fronts has been part of the learning curve. Liverpool are set to play at least 49 matches this season, potentially rising into the 60s depending on cup progress, and Iraola has shown flexibility by adjusting training times around fixture schedules rather than sticking to a fixed daily routine, as was more common under Slot. He has also opened dialogue with the club's academy setup, including U21 coach Rob Page, to ensure alignment in tactical principles across age groups. Page explained: "We have an understanding of how the first team play and key principles, like how we press, how he wants his number 10 to press, how he wants his number eight to press, how he wants his centre-backs to press — we mirror that absolutely."
Developing younger players has become a hallmark of Iraola's approach, one of the qualities that reportedly attracted Liverpool to appoint him. The current squad's average age of 25.3 ranks among the lowest in the Premier League, and academy products such as Rio Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni and Koumas have already featured prominently, including starts in the Carabao Cup against Tottenham.
Iraola has also had to navigate the scrutiny that comes with the Liverpool job, learning that even routine post-match comments can be amplified and misconstrued in the media. Despite that, he has come across as composed and approachable in press conferences.
After a goalless draw with Fulham last weekend, Liverpool now face a stretch of testing fixtures leading into the international break, with this trip to Bournemouth marking their fourth match in 12 days. A win on the south coast, in front of a home crowd Iraola once called his own, would offer the ideal send-off before the pause — and continue his unbeaten Premier League run since January across both jobs.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport Football.