Einar Matthías

Above Us Only Sky
Editor for - Icelandic LFC website &
Host the weekly Podcast show
Bsky: the reds! #LFC

[Einar Matthías @einarmatt]

Þau mörkin sem gaurinn setti! 🙇‍♂

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

“Saturday night and I like the way you move…” 🕺

Six of Divock Origi’s best Liverpool goals 🤩

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Trump hasn’t made a public appearance in 8 days. This after an unscheduled visit to the hospital- because he “likes getting check ups.” Thank God Jake Tapper (or as I like to call him- the Brick Tamland of his generation) is on the case hunting down clues in a book about my mom’s experience as First Lady four years ago.

[AARONATION 👽 @AARONATION_M]

Gabriel Magalhaes literally wanted a freekick against PSG just because his own keeper touched his back.

Pathetic diver

[Melissa Reddy @MelissaReddy_]

Liverpool want to be an aggressive, front-foot team led by someone who is all in, whose identity is intensity, who will immerse himself in the club through to the academy, and whose hard-working character will endear him to the city. That’s Andoni Iraola.

Yes, there are risks. There usually always are bar very rare circumstances. Jürgen Klopp thought he was a risk because he had never worked outside of Germany.

Looking at win percentages as a mark of appointing a new head coach/manager is nonsense. Klopp would have never been approached by Bayern Munich or joined Borussia Dortmund in that case.

Luis Enrique would have never gone from Celta to Barcelona.

It’s about what they’ve achieved relative to means, scaling that, plus their stylistic fit to the club and its ambitions.

[Danny @dlmjnk]

This excellent interview with Iraola by Jonathan Northcroft from December 2023. I said at the time how impressive he was.

[SimonBrundish @SimonBrundish]

“I’m worried about Iraola, how is he going to get a team to high press on Sunday, then Wednesday and Saturday”

Like we did t spend 8 years watching a Liverpool team doing that for 42 weeks a year

[Sean Rogers @Sean_Rogers]

Andoni Iraola to Liverpool?

The schedule with Europe and Premier League, intensity of his style of play, injury record & player profile at Liverpool is raising a number of concerns

Ahead of the Arne Slot Reaction Show we recorded on Sunday for @TheAnfieldWrap I took a deeper look at the injuries, 1st vs 2nd half of season records & approach taken at Bournemouth to understand whether concerns are matched by the data and whether there are any positive signs to ease concerns……

Graphic below is the xG rolling trendline 01/01/26 to end of season @Statsbomb for Bournemouth

1)INTENSITY

The data backs up the eyes

22/23 Iraola's Rayo Vallecano forced more high turnovers which led to a shot (68) than any side in the top five European leagues except Bayern Munich (73)

In the past 2 seasons at Bournemouth Iraola’s side are

-99th percentile and 98th percentile for high press shots
-100th and 96th percentile for aggression

2)INJURIES

Up until July 2025 Iraola at every club – every season – had a negative trend ….

Iraola had NEVER overseen a second half of a campaign that outperformed the first in terms of points gained

He had a reputation for burning his squad out during the first half of the season and tailing off with injury issues even without European football

In 2024/25 season they lost over 1100 days to injury

3)2025/26 – JANUARY CHANGE IN APPROACH & POSITIVE RESULTS

2025/26 Bournemouth

A) Post their best injury numbers as an aggregate of injuries and illness suffered in the past 8 seasons
B)153 games missed due to injury ranked 8th in league
C)Post a huge improvement January 2026 to end of season
D)End the season going 18 games unbeaten
E) Iraola’s side end the season performing well during the 2nd half of the season with a budget that should result in a lower bottom half finish

Quite remarkable when they start the season absolutely flying - 2nd place after matchday 9

Then suffer significant injury crisis and go 11 games without a win between Matchweeks 10 to 20

WHY? WHAT CHANGED JANUARY ONWARDS?

A lot.

A)NEW PERFORMANCE CENTRE

Bournemouth had invested over £30m in a new sports science and medical performance centre.

This was functioning fully January 2026 onwards

B)DR ROBERT MARSHALL

Recruited in summer 2025 he arrived from RB Leipzig in July last year as Bournemouth’s Director of Medical and Performance.

Iraola raves about him

His role was in part to ensure all the departments within the performance centre worked in harmony in conjunction with Iraola.

C)SQUAD AGE

2nd youngest squad in the league I am sure helps

D)IRAOLA

Iraola made tweaks in line with the performance centre recommendations

Training and in game set up changes reportedly helped

Rotation

Strategic substitutes

Arguably had the performance centre been in place July 2025 Bournemouth may have posted even better improvements in their injury data at the end of the 2025/26 season as it’s skewed by first half of season data

There is a lot more to delve in to in respect of his tactics, in and out of possession set up, authority, leadership and training methods

Based on the work done at Bournemouth January 2026 onwards it would suggest that Iraola can work positively complementing the performance staff at Liverpool

He will also have even greater resources in all areas at Liverpool

He has also ended the trend of his sides physically and results wise blowing up during the 2nd half of a season

There is a lot he needs to prove – and managing European campaign and Premier League is an obvious one – but he can point to the lack of performance centre (up until recently at Bournemouth) and the results since the integration of the performance centre / Dr Robert Marshall, positively as evidence of how he could work with the performance staff at Liverpool to balance intensity and the schedule

[Chris Williams @Chris78Williams]

Looking forward to the London based press and their articles on how “just” a league title is a bit of a failure….

[Minnesota Sports Fan @HendrickD82]

Here's why this is bullshit.

Thomas Frank had played reductive football at Brentford, and against top teams played a back 5 without fail.

He played not to lose against the top clubs.

Iraola plays to win against everyone.

Rodgers had one season of top flight experience. The job was far too early for him. He was also an egomaniac.

Iraola has five seasons of top five league experience. Has improved every single year.

And Graeme Potter went to a toxic club who have fired 16 managers in the last 22 years. And 5 under this ownership, who bought the club 4 years ago. Since Potter left 3 years ago, they've sacked 3 managers.

For context, we haven't sacked 16 managers in our entire history.

[Daniel @danlfcynwa_]

We have officially gotten 60 points.

Same as Houllier's last season.

3 lower than Benitez's last season.

2 lower than Rodgers' last season.

- Last 10 games of the season:

3W 3D 4L

- From MW6 to MW38:

12W 9D 12L

1.36 PPG --> 51.68 pts across a 38 game season

A disgrace.

[Taffin @CalvLyfeson]

Feel like a club going nowhere fast. Slot has it all to do to change that trajectory.

[Einar Matthías @einarmatt]

2025/26

[Einar Matthías @einarmatt]

Guði sé lof að þetta er búið.
Tölum aldrei um þetta aftur.

[Sean @SeanDOlfc]

Get your last trips of the year booked in lads @LFC

[Einar Matthías @einarmatt]

@Olafur_Tomasson @Sverrirbjorn Ef einhver ætti að vita þetta er það yfirmaður knattspyrnumàla hjá Liverpool

[Killi 🧉 @KM_243_]

#he preferred Frimpong rw shifts over this….

[Einar Matthías @einarmatt]

@Sverrirbjorn morgun

[Sam Millne @sam_millne]

I took a look at Liverpool's points per game rate since Arne Slot's arrival.

The drop-off is incredible since last year's League Cup final.

Why qualification for the Champions League could be a red herring, for @thisisanfield ⤵️

🔗 https://t.co/a63ZaLE3Fq

[LewisFN @LewisFN00]

Arne Slot has coached the worst defence in 111 years.

Is anybody actually grasping just how bad of a job he's done?