He discussed transfers, injury news and the Seagulls, as Bournemouth prepare for their trip along the south coast.
Read every word from the broadcast section of Iraola’s press conference here.
Mark McAdam (Sky Sports News): Let’s start with the team news. What’s the latest? How’s the squad looking? Have you got any players you’re welcoming back or any players you’ve got concerns over?
Andoni Iraola: Yeah, right now, as you know, we are quite thin. We have probably from the last game, Brooksy finished, he twisted his ankle. An ankle that has previously given him some problems even before we were here. And we are there seeing if he is going to be available or not. But he’s the one who finished worse from the Newcastle game. And then the only one who can recover is Ryan. Ryan is feeling better and I hope he can be available for Monday. I think he’s training in a better level than he has been previously and I hope we can recover Ryan. But yes, still early because we still have three, four days until the game. But this is more or less the situation.
MM: So good news that Ryan Christie is coming back. David Brooks, do you have any idea as to how long potentially this ankle problem may kick?
AI: It will depend on how he manages the pain because it happened at the beginning of the game. A situation I think is a clear foul. I think one situation going inside the box. They don’t call the foul, but there is a contact and they twist his ankle. He manages to finish the game. But it’s true that after was a little bit swollen. He has some pain and it will depend on how he feels, but right now hasn’t been able to train this week.
MM: So is it weeks or months?
AI: No, no, I have no idea. No, no, definitely not months. No, no. it’s an ankle. He twisted his ankle and it will depend how he can manage the pain.
MM: Okay, we’re in the transfer window. As you said, you’re struggling with numbers. You’re very thin with regards to your. Your squad’s depth. Are the club getting closer to potentially any signings? We know that they had a rejected bid for Alex Toth from Ferencváros, Hungarian side. Young central midfielder. Has there been any developments or progress on that deal?
AI: Yes. You know, I cannot speak about players that are not our players and they play for other clubs. I think you have to understand they cannot speak about those players. No, it’s true that the club is working on trying to sign players. We are all aware about our situation that now is very delicate and we need to add players. But it’s true that you cannot just decide, okay, I need one player, I will sign it today. And then have to happen a lot of things to reach to an agreement. And the club is working in different situations, open to different options and we have to wait. Obviously I want the players for now, but I understand that this takes time and we have to wait until we can close a deal.
AI: Yes, I know you can’t talk about individual players. You’ve also been linked with Rayyan at Vasco da Gama, obviously a Brazilian side, 19-year-old. He’s played Brazil under 17, under 20. He’s a really exciting prospect. The fact that you’re linked with these really talented players, does that show how attractive Bournemouth are as a club for teams across the world?
AI: As you said, I cannot speak about players that are not ours. In some cases I listen some names and there is some truth there. In other cases I listen to some names and I know nothing about those news. So sometimes there is something behind the news, sometimes there isn’t. At the end, we have to wait, be patient and wait until we can finish any deal. I think that this January market is very difficult and not this season always has been very difficult. And it’s difficult to sign players because we don’t want to lose any of our players. Also because you are in a position that you are fighting for your goals, you want to win games and to lose especially good players now it’s not what the teams want. We have to be patient.
MM: You said sometimes you see things and there’s a little bit of truth. Sometimes there’s no truth. Is there any truth in the Rayan stuff?
AI: I don’t know. I don’t really know. I don’t know. I cannot tell you about concrete situations. It’s true that we need, you know, more or less the situations we are looking for. In the midfield, we are quite thin, outside, especially now, even in the number 10 position. So those are the priorities. But it’s not that we are closed if something appears. Sometimes the January market is about okay, taking advantage of certain situations. It’s not the player you need, but in this moment it’s probably the best one you can sign. Even if it’s not exactly your profile or can be a loan or can be something like, okay, it will help us for these five months. So we have to be aware of these situations. We are not like just we need this profile. We need. No, because you have to be open minded. I think especially now.
MM: If you could just get one player in, just say, for the Brighton game, what position would that be? Where do you think is the biggest area of concern for you right now?
AI: I think the position is probably, if you ask me right now, probably the winger. Probably the winger in the sense that we’ve lost Antoine, we lost even Justin, that is not a winger, but he has played there a lot and now we are dealing with Brooksy, let’s see how this develops. But it’s true that we are very thin because our positions that you normally need to change. I like to sub them or most of the managers, normally we tend to wub the offensive players. But the goal of the club and ours is to train more than a player.
MM: Up next, Brighton, very similar to Bournemouth in many ways. A team that play really good football in the Premier League, perhaps in a false position. They’ve only won once in their last eight Premier League matches. Does that surprise you, based on your analysis of how they’ve been playing and the way they’ve been performing?
AI: They play very well. Brighton is a team that plays very well, but I think it’s the level of the competition, teams like Brighton that play so well, sometimes they can go through this kind of runs like it has happened to us, because at the end you go through a difficult part of the schedule and you can find yourself in that position. No, I think it’s a very good squad, I would say. I think it’s a team that finishes the games very strong because the players they come from the bench are as good or better than the ones that were starting. And I think if you see the numbers, they’ve been so, so good in the last 30 minutes of every game. And this speaks very well about their squad and we have to be obviously careful with this. And also, it’s a team that, at home, they’ve been very, very good. I think they’ve lost just once in all the season. It means you have to play a special game if you want to get something from there, you have to be really, really good. Yes.
MM: They’ve lost just once in the last 14 Premier League games at home, to Aston Villa. So, yeah, really, really good at home. One of the other things about Brighton is they’ve got 15 different goal scorers this season, so more than any other Premier League side. So it shows you that they have threats all over the pitch.
AI: Yes, I think it’s about the squad. Even it’s very difficult to guess their starting 11 because they change it a lot. They can, according to the game, they start with one player and then leave certain players for like to finish the games. And I think they are using very well this squad and you have to be ready not just for the starting 11. Also for the moment they put the subs and normally they are the ones making the difference. So we have to be very ready. I think it’s a team that plays very well. I’ve seen last games, Manchester, both City and United away. They played really well both games and I think we’ve had last games because we’ve had a really difficult schedule this past month. We have to be ready for another of these kind of difficult games.
MM: And just finally, people may be surprised, but Bournemouth actually have the worst away defence in the Premier League. Obviously been a bit of concern of yours. You want to stop conceding goals away from home. Maybe it’s because of the style of football, you play that attacking brand of football. So you are going to ultimately concede more goals than perhaps other sides. Is that something that’s a concern to you? Do you feel like that’s something that needs to be addressed? Because it surprises me that Bournemouth are that side.
AI: Yes, it concerns me. Definitely concerns me. I think we are a team that score a lot of goals and concede a lot of goals. And if you want to be a very good team, you cannot concede the number of goals we are conceding. And this is the main reason why we are not being able to get the results we want lately. Because we have been scoring a lot of goals and not getting the results. And it’s very difficult to do the things we do. And to go to, I don’t know, to St James’ Park score three goals or Chelsea score two goals away, or Old Trafford score four goals away and not win the game. I think we draw these three, but it’s very little at all. You know, should be something special you are able to score two, three, four goals away. You should get more wins. And we are not getting them because we are conceding goals. And this has been lately the reason why we are not getting the results. Even the other day we beat Spurs, but still conceded two goals. 3-2. I think until we don’t improve this defensive form or we start not conceding goals, it’s going to be difficult to get more wins.
Paul Belverstone (Premier League Productions): How’s Enes Unal now after a few days?
AI: Yes. He has an abductor injury. It’s not a big injury. But he felt it straight away and he will be out for, I don’t know, two, three weeks. I hope it’s not more than this because it’s not a big one, but it’s something that normally happens when you come from an ACL. First start after playing some minutes here and there and then these things can happen. It’s a shame because he was doing well after the injury. He was getting slowly, slowly, more minutes, training, normal with the team and now it’s another stop and it’s not ideal, but you have to accept these things.
PB: It feels so similar to this time last year. The injuries. Are there any similarities in what’s happened? Is it just bad luck?
AI: I think it’s not about only us. If you see most of the squads in the Premier League, we’ve been watching most of them, they have five, six, seven injuries. Because here, December and January is brutal for the Premier League clubs, it’s brutal and this season it’s different kind of injuries we’ve had, not really muscle injuries. I think Ennis is the first one in a while. But we’ve had a lot of knees, ankles, more the articulations now it’s more difficult to detect this, because the mechanism, you don’t step properly or difficult. But if you look, even I don’t know. We’re playing Brighton now. We played Newcastle, City. They all have injuries. Some of them have a bigger squad than us and probably you notice it less. But in our case, our squad is not so long and when we have five, six players out, we really notice it.
PB: A player who is shining at the moment is Alex Jimenez. He made his debut against Brighton. How impressed have you been with the way he’s progressed and developed?
AI: Alex is playing very well. He’s improving a lot. That is important in a young player. I think you could feel since the first game, as you said, the first game was against Brighton, that he has something on him. He has quality on the ball, he has speed, especially offensively, I think he’s a big threat, but I think he’s improving in the other side of the game. Defensively, I think he’s dealing better with difficult wingers. I think he’s physically sustaining much better the games, finishing stronger the games. I remember at the beginning he couldn’t finish a game because normally after 60, 65, he was dead. And now he has been finishing games, finishing also with good energy. So I think it’s a good path, good improvement and I hope we can keep him there and even improve more things with him.
PB: With the issues you’ve got in the wide attacking areas, is his short term future likely to be higher up the pitch and then long term, do you see him establishing himself as a winger or a fullback?
AI: I think he’s a right back. I think he’s very clear his position. But it’s true that he can help us in other positions. I think he has played on the left previously for AC Milan as a wing back. He could play as a left back, I think, I haven’t tried, but I think he could do it. And with us has played both right wing and left wing. I think it’s very good for us to have this kind of options from a player. But I think his position is very clear that he’s a right back. Depending on the needs of the game, you can use him more forward. But if you ask me where he’s going to play the next 10, 12 years, I think he’s going to be a right back.
PB: And how exciting is that potential over those 10, 12 years? I know he’s only been here three months. I’m getting carried away. But how exciting is it?
AI: Yes. No, I think his future looks very bright. Very bright. But he has to be also very aware that he has to keep this level of demands, of level of training level of playing, level of feeling the game. Putting yourself in the best position to give this performance level. He understands now a little bit the language. What is true that he doesn’t speak English, but it’s true with us we can help him a little bit more, but I think it’s good he starts speaking English and he can speak more with the teammates, but it’s a process. I think he’s doing very well. But still it’s his first year in the Premier League, basically his second year in professional football. So we expect him to do even better. Yes.
PB: As far as the two teams on Monday, do you see similarities at the top end of the pitch? The pressing, the aggression, the forcing of high turnovers?
AI: Yes, yes, definitely. I think we are two teams that press very high, press very intense that we want to win this territory on the ball and without the ball. We’ve been, I think my three seasons here quite close to them. I think we finished just one position behind previous seasons and we tied with them in points my first season. Past season I think we finished eighth and ninth and this season they are doing better. But these three points is not, they are not so, so far. It would be a good sign for us if we could stay where they are going to finish. Would be a very good sign for us, but it’s very demanding to try to match those teams.
PB: How important or extra important is that work at the top end of the pitch without the ball to sort of negate the influence of Jan Paul van Hecke, he seems to start off attacks.
AI: And it’s not just van Hecke. Their defenders are all very good on the ball. They are very comfortable on the ball. The midfielders also, they don’t feel the pressure, they ask for the ball in difficult positions. That’s why they are so good in their build up. I think something that is almost integrated in the club coming from since the Potter days, De Zerbi, now Hurzeler, it’s a team that is comfortable on the ball. I think they for sure they sign players who know what they are doing on the ball. And you can see even the ones who don’t start, they play the other day against United and they are very good on the ball and their build up is very clean. And if you are not switched on, you are going to suffer there because it’s going to be very difficult to recover the ball. They are one of the best teams in this first phase of the game, I would say. And if we want to compete and we want to have the ball and we want to control moments of the game, I think we will have to be very intense and very good. Yes.
PB: And they’ve just brought Pascal Gross back. They’ve already got Lewis Dunk, Danny Welbeck, James Milner. You’ve played Sunderland recently with Granit Xhaka, Brentford, Jordan Henderson. You see where I’m going. That sort of profile player of your young squad. Is that something you might urge upstairs to look at?
AI: I think they’ve seen very good players. Yes, some veteran players, but you know, I played against Pascal Gross. Pascal Gross is a very good player. Runs a lot, covers ground, competes amazing on the ball. You know, it’s like a proven player. They are not gambling when they sign Pascal Gross, they know him very well and they know what he’s going to give them. And I think there is a core of veteran players there that it helps a lot also the development of the new younger players that they normally sign every. Every year here we have other type of veteran players. Also for us it’s very important. I always say for us, Adam Smith, Lewis Cook, Ryan Christie, the players that have been here more time than they experienced, the ups, the downs, they know about the environment, the league, about Bournemouth more. I think they are key because they are very good players, but also because they help a lot the younger ones and I think as you said Sunderland, Brentford, Brighton are understanding very well this.