Iraola's Blueprint: Strengthening Liverpool's Set Pieces

Andoni Iraola did not arrive at Anfield alone. He brought a blueprint, a trusted inner circle, and a clear idea of where Liverpool must harden up if they are to move on from the Arne Slot era: set pieces.

The new Liverpool head coach has quietly rebuilt the technical heart of the club in his own image, importing key figures from Bournemouth while embracing the staff he inherited. The task is sharp and simple. Last season, Liverpool conceded 23 goals from set plays in the league – only Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Leeds were worse. For a team with title ambitions, that number is an alarm bell.

Iraola’s inner circle arrives

Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper, central to Iraola’s work at Bournemouth, are now first‑team coaches at Liverpool. Pablo de la Torre, a long-time ally, has joined as assistant coach. Alejandro Rosalen, fresh from five years at Napoli, takes over as first-team goalkeeping coach.

For Iraola, De la Torre is more than a fitness specialist. Their relationship stretches back to AEK Larnaca and Rayo Vallecano, and the trust built there now underpins his first season at Anfield.

“For me, it was important they came with me,” Iraola said. “Pablo is a physical coach but has been with me almost all the years I have been coaching. So, for me, he is much more than a physical coach really. He is an assistant and we know each other very well.”

That familiarity matters now. On Saturday, in Nashville against Sunderland, Iraola will step into the Liverpool dugout for the first time. The surroundings are new. The voices around him are not.

Bournemouth foundations, Anfield demands

The story might easily have been different. Iraola initially intended to bring Iñigo Pérez with him to Bournemouth from Rayo, only for work-permit issues to block the move. That setback reshaped his staff and, ultimately, his view of English football.

“I was very lucky with Tommy and Shaun when I arrived at Bournemouth,” he said. “Because I was unlucky to have the issue with my assistant coach Iñigo Pérez, who was denied a work permit when attempting to follow me from Rayo Vallecano to Bournemouth. After, it worked out very well for him because now he is coaching Villarreal. Maybe we play him in the Champions League.

“But when I had Tommy and Shaun there, we did not feel the need to bring in another assistant. They were very prepared, they were very helpful for me in terms of understanding the English culture, the mentality of the players, what they were used to, what they like in training, even the small details that maybe in Spain are different.”

Those “small details” often decide tight games in England. How players respond to sessions. What they expect from video work. How they react when the tempo dips. Elphick’s playing background at Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton and Huddersfield gives him a direct line into the dressing room that a foreign coach does not automatically possess.

“Also the experience Tommy has at Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton, Huddersfield; they can be in a closer position to the players. They can feel more identified. I am a little bit older. Some of the players maybe didn’t know I was a player,” Iraola admitted.

That honesty is telling. Iraola understands that modern dressing rooms often lean first towards those who have shared their journey. He is happy to let Elphick and Cooper occupy that space while he drives the broader tactical and cultural shift.

Fixing Liverpool’s soft spot

Set pieces are the obvious fault line. Slot’s final season brought a title but also a vulnerability that opponents repeatedly exploited. Twenty-three goals conceded from dead-ball situations is not an aberration; it is a pattern.

Iraola has moved quickly to make that a shared responsibility inside his staff.

“They are very good coaches,” he said of his team. “We kind of understand the game similarly and they have different roles in the coaching staff, they help with set pieces also. That’s the reason I continued with them.

“Tommy does defensive set plays, Shaun does more offensive, more creative ones. But also we are working very well here with the set-piece analyst [Lewis Mahoney], who was very good in the second half of last season. He is already with the club, so they are working on some stuff.”

That division of labour is precise. Elphick will be the man charged with closing the door: marking schemes, body positions, reaction to second balls. Cooper will be asked to turn corners and free-kicks into a weapon again, to restore the variety and sharpness that once made Liverpool so dangerous from dead balls. Mahoney, already embedded at the club and praised for his impact late last season, links the data and the grass.

This is not a cosmetic tweak. For a side that expects to play deep into every competition, set pieces become a season-long pressure test. Liverpool have their new head coach, his trusted lieutenants and a clear problem to solve. The question now is simple: can this reconstructed backroom team turn a weakness into a trademark?