Iraola: Spain's Current Team Presses Higher Than 2010, It's Not Just About Possession

In the opening episode of Sky Sports' new "Boss" series, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher sat down with Liverpool's new manager Arne Slot to discuss Slot's early experiences managing Liverpool, the club's transfer market plans, and what the Reds can achieve in the Premier League this season. This is the third part of the interview.

Arne, I'd like to talk about your playing career or the coaching experience you've had with other coaches. When people discuss your coaching and playing style, Bielsa is often the first name that comes to mind, but I'm interested to hear you say that your favorite coach, or the one who influenced you most, was actually Ernesto Valverde.

Yes, whenever people ask me which coach I admire most, I tell them it's Ernesto Valverde. I trained under him in Athletic Bilbao's youth academy, and he was the first to give me the opportunity to play for the senior team. Later, in the final years of my playing career at Athletic Bilbao, he was also my coach. I learned a lot from him.

So why do you think people often associate you with Bielsa? Is it because of the pressing? He's a big advocate of man-to-man pressing. Whenever you watch his teams—particularly Leeds United in the Premier League—their style of play is still somewhat different from yours. Do you take what you consider to be Bielsa's main strengths and adapt them to your own style?

Yes. If people remember me as a player, they often think of the Bielsa era because we reached the Europa League final, the Copa del Rey final, and I remember we beat Manchester United. So English fans might know me as a player from that period more than anything else. But honestly, in terms of similarities, I don't see that many. I'd like to have his tactical flexibility, especially when in possession, because Bielsa had very high demands regarding movement off the ball, pressing from behind the defensive line, counter-pressing, and other tactical details that make the game flow smoothly. But truthfully, it's difficult to emulate his style. You almost have to adopt it completely. So I think I've been inspired more by the philosophy of other coaches.

Does that frustrate you? As a coach at Liverpool, do you want to prove something—because whenever people talk about your teams, or teams you've managed, they often focus on performance without the ball. Do you want to showcase what you can do with possession as well?

Yes. I don't think you can separate the periods when you have the ball and when you don't. I don't want to say "I'll be like this coach when we have possession and like another when we don't." No, because these two things influence each other deeply. You can't separate them. Your attacking approach directly determines your defensive setup, and vice versa. So my concept is very clear about how the team should work or how I want the team to play. After that, it's about fine-tuning details to make our players feel more proud and comfortable, especially when we have the ball—to find the right spaces for each player. But I think the team needs to have a backbone and a specific identity, and this is what people will demand from me and from this team. And we have to deliver that.

I think Spain today is not only an excellent producer of players, but also a source of great coaches and championship-winning managers. But honestly, your coaching style and your style as a player are quite different from the Spain national team that won the World Cup. Could you tell us a bit about your playing style? I've heard you mention that you were a right-back who would often send crosses into the box for Yoren or other tall forwards. Are there many clearly different football styles and tactical approaches in Spain?

Yes. Even the Spain national team that won the World Cup today, I think they're quite different from the team that won their first championship in 2010. I think you can see that now they press higher and show much more intensity when they don't have the ball. Whereas previously, Spain perhaps dominated matches entirely through possession. They basically controlled the ball throughout the game, using possession as a form of defense. They didn't want to take the risk of losing the ball too much. And for me, this is completely different from the style I was familiar with at my club. It was a huge challenge for me, but I benefited enormously from those experiences. Honestly, I didn't get many opportunities to play for the national team back then. It was very difficult to break into that squad. Sometimes I'd be called up, but mostly I was on the bench. But I used that experience to learn about controlling matches through possession. It's different from the style I'm used to, but I really loved it.

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