The 44-year-old took his first on-pitch session as Reds head coach on Thursday, after members of the squad returned to the AXA Training Centre earlier in the week. As he told Liverpoolfc.com in an exclusive interview, it was a moment Iraola was itching for – six weeks on from his arrival from AFC Bournemouth.
A few days into pre-season now. Can you give us a recap of what’s been happening and your assessment of it?
Yeah, I was looking forward actually to starting the training properly. Because I have been here almost two weeks with the U21s, all the physical tests – but you want to start doing your thing. It has been a good day. Also the weather is helping us a lot these first days. The boys are training properly, yes.
You’ve had the balls on the pitch today. Does trying to implement your style start from day one and is that an element of coaching that you really enjoy?
Yes, I think we need them to understand what we need, to implement what we want. We also have to learn a lot from them. We have to know very well the players, where they are more comfortable, what we need to reinforce more, what we need to change. The more we can spend time here on the pitch and working with the ball is going to be better for us.
And how have the players returned? What kind of condition are they in?
Nowadays, players normally are very professional. They have things to do in the summer. They come normally in a good shape. Some of them are in a better shape, the other ones are still getting there, but we have our time, we have our weeks to prepare. I hope when it matters, we arrive ready.
On the injured players specifically, how are they progressing and are any closer?
Probably the worst news when we arrived is that we have, I would say, five players injured. Even [Jayden] Danns, who couldn’t start with us because he got injured with the U21s. Obviously they are different injuries, three of them are long-term injuries, different phases. Then we have Stefan [Bajcetic] that is doing slowly, slowly better but is still not ready to train with us and waiting also for Wataru
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