Rafael Benitez Supports Andoni Iraola at Liverpool

Rafael Benitez has seen what awaits a Spanish coach walking into Anfield. The scrutiny, the expectation, the sheer scale of the place. And he believes Andoni Iraola is better prepared for it than most.

Iraola, appointed Liverpool head coach last month after Arne Slot was sacked barely a year into the job despite delivering a record-equalling 20th league title, becomes only the second Spaniard to take charge of the club. The first knows exactly how sharp the transition can be.

“It’s a massive club,” Benitez told Sky Sports, the words carrying the weight of someone who lived it from 2004 to 2010. But he sees a key difference in Iraola’s case. “I think he has an advantage – he knows the league.”

Benitez arrived from Valencia into a very different Premier League. The pace, the physicality, the tactical demands caught many continental managers cold two decades ago. Iraola walks in with that phase already behind him.

The 42-year-old has already fought his way through an English learning curve at Bournemouth, where his intense, front-foot football dragged the club clear of early-season doubts and turned them into one of last season’s most awkward opponents. The work there, Benitez says, has not gone unnoticed.

“Iraola has done really well obviously in Bournemouth as you have seen,” he said. The admiration, though, goes back further than his time on the south coast.

Benitez and his staff had tracked Iraola’s rise at Rayo Vallecano, where the former Athletic Club defender carved out a reputation for bold, aggressive football in La Liga. One of Benitez’s assistants went to watch Iraola’s training sessions up close.

“One of the members of my staff was watching him training and he told me after that he liked it because he (Iraola) was involved, he’s trying to do things on the pitch all the time,” Benitez explained. A hands-on coach. Constantly active. Demanding.

Those traits matter at Liverpool. Anfield responds to energy, to initiative, to a team and a manager who impose themselves on games rather than simply react to them. Benitez is convinced the stylistic fit is obvious.

“The fans will be very supportive, for sure,” he said. “The way that he wants to play, I think they like that.”

It is a crucial point. Liverpool supporters, conditioned by years of high-tempo, aggressive football, expect a side that hunts the ball and attacks with conviction. Iraola’s Bournemouth did exactly that, often unsettling more established sides with their intensity and bravery in possession.

Now comes the leap. From a club punching up, to one expected to compete for everything. From survival and consolidation, to trophies and standards set by that 20th championship.

“Bournemouth has done really well and now he has a different challenge,” Benitez said. The tone was respectful but clear: this is another level.

Yet he keeps returning to the same conviction. Iraola knows the league. He knows the rhythm of English football, the travel, the winter schedule, the relentlessness of it all. That, in Benitez’s eyes, strips away one of the biggest unknowns.

“At the beginning when we arrived to the Premier League, it was totally different,” Benitez admitted of his own move. Iraola does not walk into that same blind corner. He arrives with proof that his ideas can work on English soil.

Benitez, at 66, has seen enough managerial cycles to avoid wild predictions. But he does not hesitate on the core question. Can Iraola succeed at Liverpool?

“I think he has great possibilities to do well,” he said.

The rest will be decided where it always is at Anfield – on the pitch, under the lights, with a fanbase ready to embrace a style of play they already know they like.