Arne Slot is out and Andoni Iraola is in at Anfield. Can the former Bournemouth man succeed in his first season on Merseyside? We look at five key questions for Liverpool heading into the 2026-27 season.
This time last year, you would have needed quite the imagination to picture anyone but Arne Slot in the Liverpool dugout heading into the 2026-27 season.
However, having won the Premier League in Slot’s first campaign in 2024-25, the Reds’ title defence did not go according to plan. They ultimately finished fifth last season, 25 points behind champions Arsenal, and 24 points behind their own total from the previous campaign.
That drop off despite heavy investment in the squad last summer, coupled with general dissatisfaction from the fans about what they deemed to be a fairly uninspiring style of football, led to Slot’s removal. He has been replaced by the highly-respected Andoni Iraola.
The Spaniard excelled at Bournemouth, breaking their top-flight points record in each of his three seasons on the south coast, and almost pipping Liverpool to UEFA Champions League qualification last term.
Will Iraola be able to get the Reds back to competing for the Premier League title, though, while also navigating the Champions League for the first time in his managerial career?
On top of that, experienced trio Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté have left, and while some new arrivals have been secured, Liverpool are yet to make a statement signing to replace the Egyptian King.
Reports suggest it could be Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola, but with two weeks left of the transfer window, will they be able to get their business done?
We’ve asked five questions of Liverpool ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.
Will Iraola’s Style Work at Top Level?
It seems a silly question to ask as his style of play is reportedly a big reason why Iraola was brought to Liverpool. But there is a difference between doing enough to impress at Bournemouth and doing enough for one of the biggest clubs on the planet.
The Basque boss likes his teams to press high and be fast and direct on the ball. It is an approach that six-time Premier League winner Pep Guardiola previously suggested was the direction football is heading.
“Today, modern football is the way that Bournemouth play, that Newcastle play, Brighton play, Liverpool have always been like that,” the former Manchester City manager said last year.
Iraola likes his team to break forward quickly, which has indeed been a growing theme in the Premier League in recent years. The 2024-25 season is the only one on record (since 2006-07) to have seen more shots from fast breaks (1.79 per game) than last season (1.75). That rate increased from 0.78 per game in 2020-21 to more than twice as many in each of the last two seasons.
In his time at the Vitality Stadium, only one team had more shots from fast breaks in Premier League games than Iraola’s Bournemouth (128), and you’ll never guess who it was. Yes, Liverpool (155), so on paper, it seems like a match made in heaven.
During Iraola’s reign, Bournemouth attacked the quickest of every Premier League team, with the average speed of their moves upfield averaging 1.95 metres per second, while only one ever-present team in that time (Everton) averaged fewer passes per sequence than Bournemouth (2.98).
The new Liverpool boss wants to get the ball forward as quickly as possible, which should bode well for two certain superstars who need a big season at Anfield…
Can Wirtz and Isak Live Up to their Price Tags?
It was a level of spending we’d never previously seen from Liverpool. Last summer, two statement signings arrived in Ronald Araujo, but midfield and attack still look light.
If Curtis Jones leaves for Inter, as is seemingly likely, the expectation is that teenager Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitiké out injured for several more months, Liverpool currently only have one recognised senior striker in Isak, and he was only able to play 22 games last season. As things stand,
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