Andoni Iraola's Coaching Team at Liverpool: A Plan for Set Pieces

Andoni Iraola did not arrive at Anfield alone. He brought with him a trusted brain trust, a set-piece plan and a clear idea of who does what in the bid to fix one of Liverpool’s most glaring weaknesses.

The new Liverpool head coach has transplanted the core of his Bournemouth operation to Merseyside. Tommy Elphick, a boyhood Liverpool supporter, and Shaun Cooper have come in as first-team coaches. Pablo de la Torre, Iraola’s long-time lieutenant, steps in as assistant coach. Alejandro Rosalen takes charge of the goalkeepers after five years at Napoli.

For Iraola, the familiar faces are not a luxury. They are non-negotiable.

“For me, it was important they came with me,” he said ahead of his first game in the Liverpool dugout, a pre-season friendly against Sunderland in Nashville on Saturday. De la Torre, he explained, is officially a physical coach, but in reality much more than that. The pair worked together at AEK Larnaca and again at Rayo Vallecano. They have been side by side for almost the entirety of Iraola’s coaching career.

“He is an assistant and we know each other very well,” Iraola said. The implication is clear: as he walks into one of the most pressurised jobs in European football, he wants people around him who do not need every idea explained twice.

Bournemouth bonds, Anfield demands

If De la Torre is the long-term confidant, Elphick and Cooper are the unexpected windfall. Iraola is candid about that. When he first arrived at Bournemouth, his plan was to bring Iñigo Pérez from Rayo as his assistant. Bureaucracy killed that move; a work permit denial left Iraola without his right-hand man.

“I was very lucky with Tommy and Shaun when I arrived at Bournemouth,” he said. The bad break with Pérez, who is now coaching Villarreal, became an opportunity. “After, it worked out very well for him because now he is coaching Villarreal. Maybe we play him in the Champions League.”

Elphick and Cooper filled the gap so convincingly that Iraola stopped looking elsewhere. “When I had Tommy and Shaun there, we did not feel the need to bring in another assistant,” he explained. They gave him something he did not have: an immediate line into English football’s dressing-room culture.

“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.”

Elphick’s playing career – Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton, Huddersfield – gives him a natural closeness to the squad that a foreign coach dropping into the Premier League cannot instantly replicate. “They can be in a closer position to the players. They can feel more identified,” Iraola said. Then, with a hint of self-awareness, he added: “I am a little bit older. Some of the players maybe didn’t know I was a player.”

At Liverpool, that dynamic will matter. A new manager, a title-winning squad, and a fanbase that expects control from day one. The staff around Iraola will help translate his ideas into the nuances of a group that has already scaled the summit under Arne Slot.

Fixing a title-winner’s flaw

One job towers over the rest: sorting out set pieces.

For all the success of Slot’s reign – a league title in his first season – Liverpool’s vulnerability from dead balls never went away. Only Bournemouth (26), Crystal Palace (25) and Leeds (24) conceded more set-piece goals than Liverpool’s 23 in what proved to be Slot’s final campaign in charge.

That is not a quirk of the numbers. It is a structural problem, and Iraola has moved quickly to assign responsibility.

“Tommy does defensive set plays, Shaun does more offensive, more creative ones,” he said. Clear lines. Clear ownership. The same staff who helped him sharpen Bournemouth’s edge now step into a club where every corner and free-kick conceded is dissected in forensic detail.

They will not work alone. Inside Liverpool, there is already a specialist in place. “We are working very well here with the set-piece analyst [Lewis Mahoney], who was very good in the second half of last season,” Iraola said. “He is already with the club, so they are working on some stuff.”

That “stuff” will define early impressions. Anfield has seen too many leads wobble from routine balls into the box. Iraola’s staff have been chosen and assigned with that in mind.

“They are very good coaches,” he said. “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.”

A new manager, a familiar flaw, and a backroom unit built on trust and clear roles. The theory is in place. On Saturday in Nashville, Liverpool get their first glimpse of what it looks like on the pitch.