Iraola's high-press system risks worsening Liverpool's stoppage-time collapse problem

Andoni Iraola inherits a Liverpool side that lost five Premier League games in stoppage time last season — the most by any single club in a single Premier League campaign — and his own high-press system may make that problem harder, not easier, to fix.

The Spaniard replaced Arne Slot this summer with a mandate to return Liverpool to the top of English football. But the physical demands of his aggressive, front-foot approach are already drawing attention in pre-season, with left-back Milos Kerkez among those to acknowledge the step-up in intensity.

“We play really aggressive. We need to run a lot more,” Kerkez said after Liverpool’s 2-0 friendly win over Como. “You can see I have more freedom to fly up and down. I’m really running more, with more freedom, putting more balls into boxes. The manager gave me confidence when I was in Bournemouth. We all have to do what he tells us to do — play aggressive, front-foot.”

Kerkez played under Iraola at Bournemouth and is therefore more familiar with the system than most of his new teammates, yet even he admitted to feeling the strain. “Today is the first time playing 90 minutes this summer,” he said. “I felt a bit in the legs at, I would say 70, 70-something minutes, but it’s good to get the whole 90 minutes today.”

The concern is not theoretical. Liverpool’s pre-season results have already produced echoes of last season’s late-game fragility. The Reds led Monaco 2-0 in a friendly at Anfield before conceding twice and losing 3-2, with Paris Brunner’s goal arriving in the 88th minute. Against Leeds in Chicago, Liverpool were 2-0 up at the hour mark before conceding three goals in 13 minutes, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin completing a 4-2 win with five minutes of normal time remaining.

Pre-season results carry limited weight, and fitness levels will naturally improve as the squad builds its conditioning around Iraola’s demands. But the pattern raises a legitimate structural question: if a high-press system depletes energy in the final quarter of games, how does Liverpool avoid repeating the late-game collapses that defined — and damaged — last season’s title challenge? It is the central tactical puzzle Iraola must solve before competitive football begins.