Andoni Iraola says his coaching ideas are not much changed from his first days as a manager at AEK Larnaca in Cyprus, which was not even seven years ago. He moved from there to Mirandes in La Liga’s Segunda Division, then to Rayo Vallecano and, in June 2023, to Bournemouth. Today his lateral thinking and vertical play has Bournemouth — amid an injury crisis — starting to ponder Champions League football next season.

“The things that have given me the chance to be here, to coach in the Premier League, are ideas I trust in from the start,” he says. “You have to adapt, but if you saw the first games I coached in Cyprus, what the team was trying to do is very similar to what we are trying to do here. You learn in the process, but the main idea doesn’t change a lot.

“I was clear in what I wanted to do. I had to learn a lot of small things — some not so small, influential — but the main approach I haven’t changed because it’s the way I love football to be played and it’s the way I feel comfortable coaching. I could play a different way, and I have the tools to do it, but I think I would be a worse coach practising a way of playing I don’t feel inside.”

Iraola’s style could be described as collective structure combined with dynamic individualism. After Bournemouth’s 4-1 dismantling of Newcastle at St James’ Park last month, midfielder Tyler Adams encapsulated the approach as “controlled chaos”.

It was a two-word compliment, but it is terminology Iraola does not want to encourage.

“I’m not sure if I like, when they talk about my teams, the use of this word (chaos),” he says. “People have used this term, especially here in England, and I understand what they mean, but I think there’s much more organisation behind it than it looks.

“There has to be good organisation and from that good organisation there can appear very good ideas — what the players do when they are on the ball — but you have to put in starting points. It’s dangerous to associate creativity with everything being a mess. You have to put in the structure and get in a position from where players have to make their own decisions.

“The game is for the players. Coaches are just the assistants. Coaches cannot pretend to control the game — luckily for the game. But I try to encourage this creativity, try not to limit touches in training for example, try to encourage them to carry the ball, go one against one, take risks. Because I think it’s the easiest way to make a difference.

“You can organise patterns but, collectively, a lot of things have to go in synchronicity; players going by their own can make a difference.”

Iraola is not chastising Adams. He is clarifying a coaching attitude.

It is honed on the two pitches adjacent to the stadium — a humble contrast to Bournemouth’s new £40million ($50.5m) training ground at Canford Magna nine miles away, which opens next month.

“It’s something that you have to develop in training every day,” Iraola says. “Sometimes I love drills in training where players have to make a lot of decisions. It’s not just a closed exercise where you tell them to pass from there to there. Normally we try to train with opposed drills, otherwise I see it as a little bit artificial — unopposed training. If you have someone challenging, it becomes something completely different.

“In these drills sometimes they even have to cheat, or find ways to win the exercise. I think they are good for developing collectively and individually. From academy level, it’s something I encourage in the coaches, to find exercises that are demanding mentally for the player.”

Bournemouth’s players are thriving under this thoughtful stewardship. Iraola’s warmth is hard to miss and players are clearly responding to the club’s environment, although he says managerial distance is a quality he has had to acquire since his Larnaca days.

From this, however, flows his vital human ingredient, chemistry, and that leads to all-important workplace happiness.

“When I have to make decisions, I have to be very cold,” he says. “Sometimes you want a player you really like personally to do well, but if he’s going to be worse than another player you don’t like so much you have to think of the group. That’s hard.

“You have to think of the kind of people you want around your club and who will make the group of players and the atmosphere around the club better. Sometimes there are players you don’t think deserve to play but you know will give you more chance to win. You have to choose and you have to be honest.

“Chemistry is key. It is mandatory. I have not seen many teams get good results without chemistry, but it is something you have to build. You need good leaders to set a culture inside the club, clear values, because on the pitch, these values will appear.

“Happiness is very important. That’s the reason why managers value players who don’t play a lot but train very well. They are difficult to find and these are the players no manager wants to lose. For me these players are really valuable, even if the players don’t feel it the same way.

“This is one of the main parts of chemistry. If you’re playing, it’s very easy to be happy, but the ones who continue to push even when not playing keep the level high.”

But Iraola knows what he is creating at Bournemouth. It’s a big smile.

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6148611/?source=fbuk
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Actually doing a great job in Bounermouth
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Best of luck! Bournemouth are actually trying this season
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A coach playing and doing what he wants in the club and it's actually working. But we have Amorim who the players are making it look like he is a bad coach.
He wants to do what he wants but it's obvious the players want something else
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