Arne Slot won Liverpool's 20th league title in his first season in charge, then lost his job after a second campaign judged below the club's standards. Liverpool lost 19 times in all competitions before he was sacked, and Cody Gakpo said he and his teammates did not see it coming. That is the starting point for Andoni Iraola's arrival.
Why Liverpool moved on after the title
The numbers explain why the mood shifted. Liverpool finished fifth in the Premier League on 59 points, with a 17-8-12 record and a +10 goal difference. They still qualified for the Champions League, but the season ended with scrutiny rather than satisfaction.
Gakpo was blunt about the reaction inside the dressing room. “A shame that the manager has been sacked. Especially so soon after the season where we had fought to qualify for the Champions League,” he told liverpoolecho.co.uk. He added: “I don't think anyone, any of the players saw it coming.”
Slot's own words pointed to why the Champions League mattered. “Securing Champions League football was an important responsibility,” he said, adding that it ensured Liverpool could continue competing at the highest level next season and beyond. He also framed change as part of football, while saying the club never stopped striving to meet its demands.
What Iraola is walking into
Iraola has not tried to sell the handover as a break from everything that came before. He said: “Massive respect for Arne, massive respect. He's been a Premier League champion and this is something that is massive, especially for a club like Liverpool.” That is the right tone for a manager inheriting a title-winning team that still ended the season under pressure.
He has also made clear that he sees value in the squad already in place. “We've analysed Liverpool a lot, possible weaknesses, the strengths. I think we have a very good squad,” he said. “There is still work to do, like normally in every club in this moment of the season.”
The comparison with Bournemouth is part of why the move has raised interest. Iraola spent three seasons there, and Bournemouth finished sixth on 56 points, only 3 behind Liverpool. That gap is small enough to matter, especially when a coach is being handed a club that has just sacked a title-winning manager. The reset is real, but it is not a rejection of what Slot did in year one.
What Liverpool are asking Iraola to do is more awkward than it looks from the outside. He has to keep the Champions League standard, answer for a disappointing second season from a manager who still delivered the title, and do it with a squad that already knows how quickly the mood can turn at Anfield. The next step is simple enough: build on the European place, and make the 20th title look like a platform rather than a one-off.
Compiled by the ClutchBrief Desk with AI assistance, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →