Andoni Iraola's Anfield Debut Against Nottingham Forest
Andoni Iraola walks into Anfield this weekend with a point already proved and a few more still hanging in the air.
Six days on from that wild finish at St James’ Park – Dominik Szoboszlai bailing Liverpool out with a last‑gasp equaliser – the new head coach faces his first Premier League game at Anfield, a 12.30pm kick-off against a Nottingham Forest side that turned this fixture into a recurring nightmare for his predecessor.
Forest beat Arne Slot’s Liverpool 1-0 and 3-0 in their two Anfield visits, a 4-0 aggregate that helped erode the Dutchman’s authority. Iraola knows the history. He also knows this has to feel different.
An emotional Anfield debut – but no room for sentiment
“It’s going to be a special moment for me,” Iraola admitted, looking ahead to his first league game in the home dugout. He felt Anfield’s pull in pre-season; now comes the real thing. The emotion will be there, he accepts, but it has to sit behind the job.
Forest, under Oliver Glasner, will not make it a soft landing.
“He has been very successful,” Iraola said of the Austrian. “You can see straight away the shape. They don’t concede many chances… we will have to earn every chances, win our duels, nothing is for free.”
Against Leeds, Forest pinched it with a last-minute free-kick. Tight, disciplined, dangerous in transition. Exactly the kind of opponent that punishes a team still searching for balance.
Barcola deal edges forward as Iraola waits
The backdrop to all of this is a transfer story with Champions League-level numbers.
Liverpool have reached an outline agreement with Paris Saint-Germain for Bradley Barcola, a deal expected to cost just over £100m guaranteed and potentially rise to around £120m with add-ons tied to individual and team success. The France international has been the club’s priority attacking target all summer after Mohamed Salah’s departure.
The structure is in place, but the fine detail still needs to be signed off. Work remains before it becomes official.
“As you know, we are trying to sign in that position,” Iraola said, refusing to name Barcola directly. “We can’t talk about players who right now aren’t ours. But we are trying to improve and fill that position as we don’t have the numbers. I hope we have good news soon but we are still not there.”
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock has already called for more, arguing the Barcola move must be followed by a right-back and a midfielder. Inside the club, the need for wide players is not in dispute.
“There are certain things we can but it’s true we need players in the wide areas,” Iraola said. “I’m sure if we can improve other areas we will but I don’t know how the market is going to finish. I have to be patient as well as you. It’s very uncomfortable for me as you are dealing with uncertainties all the time. In four or five days we will know what we have and then we can make proper plans.”
For now, the market is noise. Forest is reality.
Midfield heat and the search for balance
If the Barcola talks have dominated the transfer agenda, the tactical debate has revolved around Liverpool’s midfield. The draw at Newcastle exposed defensive transitions again, and the scrutiny arrived right on cue.
“Not surprised,” Iraola said of the reaction. “I expected when I came here that everything would be magnified. I’m starting to understand.”
He pushed back at the idea that it was all bad. Liverpool did a lot right, he argued, including in midfield. But the issues without the ball can’t be ignored.
“It’s just one game where we did a lot of very good things, even the players in midfield did, but there are definitely things we need to improve,” he said. “You go to the goals always. If you make exactly the same mistake then it’s normal and I understand we have to talk about the defensive transitions.”
He felt Liverpool adjusted within the game, tightening up their rest defence and “getting the numbers” back more effectively as it wore on. Still, he was blunt about the first goal at Newcastle: “I think the first goal is more to blame than the second in terms of how we positioned when we lost the ball.”
The challenge now is to protect that attacking fluidity without leaving the back door open.
“We don’t want to lose the offensive side, the fluidity, the arrival of numbers, but we were punished the other day,” Iraola said. “We have been intently working on it… we can’t go from one way where we send a lot of people forward to putting everyone back and it looks stale.”
He doesn’t want to clip the wings of players like Ryan Gravenberch either.
“I don’t want to tell Ryan Gravenberch don’t carry the ball… But there is a balance, recognising the situation, how we can balance those numbers in those positions. Sometimes you have to accept (the players go forward), it isn’t always one stays back and one goes forward. If the opposition are defending deep maybe both can go forward.”
For Iraola, the best players “smell” the risk. The work on the training ground is about helping them read those moments faster.
Transfers, injuries and tough calls
The squad picture for Forest is not clean.
Federico Chiesa is out after feeling a back problem in the game against Como. Harvey Elliott again finds himself on the wrong side of the 20-man limit.
“Fede is not available,” Iraola confirmed. “With Harvey and some of the players I can only choose 20. Harvey is trying and improving every week but I still prefer other options, about the balance on the bench. That’s why James McConnell was in the squad, but it’s now another new week and new chances for everyone. They have to keep that mentality.”
The injury situation feeds directly into the transfer stance. Long-term absences have left Liverpool “down a player in some positions,” Iraola said, and that shaped their original recruitment plan.
“We know from the beginning what we wanted,” he insisted. The club understands his list; now it’s about execution.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. Even myself I have to be patient. Then we get to September 2, this is who we have and the options we have, then we can start thinking. For now we don’t know. I have in my head what I want, we’ve been talking since the beginning with the club, they know what we want. It’s about closing the deals.”
The wide areas remain the clear priority, with ongoing interest around names such as Ismaila Sarr and Yankuba Minteh in the wider conversation, even if Iraola refused to be drawn on individuals.
Early impressions: control, courage and a young defender
Strip away the noise and Iraola liked plenty of what he saw at Newcastle.
“I thought we controlled the game quite well,” he said. “I felt we had meaningful possession, were quite direct in attack. I was feeling good in the game, I felt we were closer to scoring than Newcastle in most part of the game. I felt good things in the first game.”
One of those “good things” was the debut of young defender Jacquet.
“He played very well considering it was his first game,” Iraola said. “It’s true he was tired, we had to sub him as you could feel he was tired in the last five minutes. He is very confident on the ball and good without the ball. Very young, we have to accept he will make mistakes.”
That tolerance for youth errors will be tested in a fixture where Forest have thrived on Liverpool’s uncertainty.
Gakpo’s form and the reality of the market
Cody Gakpo is another early positive. The forward impressed at St James’ Park and has been on an upward curve since returning from the World Cup.
“After performance he had in first game I say the same, he’s playing very well for us,” Iraola said. “He’s been very good since he’s been back from World Cup. The right attitude and I hope we can keep him at that level. He can be very influential on us.”
But even here, the coach refused to make promises in an open window.
“When the market is open and we bring in expensive players I cannot guarantee anything,” he said. “Our players, I cannot guarantee anything about how many we are going to sign or whatever. Experience tells us that if there’s an opportunity the last day you can do something.”
That is the reality of a club operating at the top end of the market while trying to reshape an attack in real time.
Forest, the “Tricky Trees” and a new chapter
Nottingham Forest arrive with confidence from their recent Anfield visits and a clear identity under Glasner. They are compact, aggressive in duels, and ruthless if you lose the ball cheaply.
“We will have to earn every chances,” Iraola repeated. Liverpool must be patient on the ball, sharp in transition and smarter in their positioning than they were for Newcastle’s opener.
The new head coach has already felt the drama of a late rescue away from home. Now comes something different: a bruised fanbase, a painful recent history against Forest, a £100m-plus deal on the horizon and Anfield watching every move.
Iraola wanted a Premier League challenge. On Saturday, he finds out how quickly he can start rewriting the story this stadium has been telling over the last two Forest visits.
