Football Daily | Will AI bring heavy-metal football back to Liverpool?

TIME FOR A COACH TRIP It was only a matter of time before one of football’s big clubs placed their future in the hands of AI. Happily for Liverpool, they’ve plumped for a man with those initials rather than a rapidly growing technology that has been expertly designed to fill billionaires’ pockets. Yep, Andoni Iraola has verbally agreed to replace Arne Slot as Liverpool head coach and will go from walking on water at Bournemouth to hearing – maybe even singing, though he doesn’t look like a touchline lungs man – You’ll Never Walk Alone before every home game. The last time Liverpool appointed a Spanish manager, they were champions of Europe within a year. And Iraola will inherit a stronger squad than Rafa Benítez did in 2004 – albeit one that was put together by a manager whose style of play is very different to Iraola’s. Slot prioritised possession, arguably to a fault, and only Manchester City had a higher average than Liverpool’s 59.3% in the Premier League. Iraola’s Bournemouth team (50.1%, since you asked, 11th out of 20) are much closer in spirit to Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. You’ll be reading a lot about heavy metal in the next few days, mainly regurgitations of Mohamed Salah’s recent quotes. “I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies,” spaffed Salah on Instachat after Liverpool were hammered at Aston Villa. …