Andoni Iraola Prepares for Premier League Home Opener at Anfield

Andoni Iraola has already walked out at Anfield as Liverpool head coach. Pre-season nights against AS Monaco and Como 1907 gave him a first taste of his new home. Noise, colour, curiosity.

Saturday is different.

Nottingham Forest arrive as the first Premier League visitors of the 2026-27 season, and this time the soundtrack will be sharpened by jeopardy. Points, not plaudits, are at stake.

A new Anfield pact

Writing in his first league matchday programme at Anfield, Iraola leans straight into the emotion of the occasion. He knows this date has been circled since the fixtures dropped in June, not just by supporters but by everyone inside the club.

“The first game of the season at your own ground is always special,” he tells the fans, stressing that the sense of occasion runs through players, staff and head coach alike.

Those summer friendlies, he says, were a useful warm-up – a chance for some to feel Anfield for the first time, for others to renew a familiar bond. The backing in those games clearly struck him. But he draws a line: the real “shared Anfield journey” starts only when points are on the board.

From that point, the message hardens. Atmosphere is not something he treats as a given; it is something he believes must be earned.

For the stadium to become what it can be, Iraola insists the responsibility lies with him and his players to offer something worth responding to. Positive energy on the pitch, he argues, almost guarantees positive energy in the stands. When both feed off each other, Liverpool gain an edge few clubs can match.

Tapping into Liverpool’s identity

Since arriving in June, Iraola has spoken repeatedly about the depth of feeling around the club. Here, he goes further. The passion of Liverpool supporters, he says, is not a resource to dip into when convenient. It is something the team “has to” harness.

He describes Liverpool as a “special club” defined by its people, stressing that football here is not a passive act. It is participation, loaded with emotion. The way to unlock that, in his eyes, is not through slogans but through style: how Liverpool play, how they reflect the city, how closely they live the club’s values.

If the team can embody those traits, he believes, their chances of meeting their own expectations rise sharply. That, he frames as the central challenge. And he wants everyone – players, staff, fans – to embrace it.

Saturday, he says, is the start of that Anfield journey. The excitement in his words is obvious.

Work in progress, demands in the present

Iraola does not pretend Liverpool are the finished product. The short time together, he admits, means there will be rough edges. Last weekend’s outing at Newcastle showed both the strides already taken and the work still to come.

Yet he sees that as part of the thrill. He talks about the quality and the potential inside this Liverpool squad, about the anticipation of watching them grow as a unit over the coming days, weeks and months.

That does not soften his demands. Development is not an excuse. He is clear: he expects to win now. Every game brings that responsibility. Long-range targets can wait; competitiveness from day one cannot.

Picking up results while players adapt to new methods and to each other is, for him, a vital measure of this early phase.

Forest test the foundations

Standing in the way of a perfect home start is a Nottingham Forest side that has consistently proved awkward opposition in recent seasons. Iraola recognises the threat. This, he says, is exactly what the Premier League offers: teams arriving at major grounds with ambition, organisation and a point to prove.

Forest will not come to Anfield to make up the numbers. They will come to make an impression.

Liverpool’s head coach knows what that looks and feels like from the away dugout. Now he wants to flip the script. His demand is simple: be ready for the test, and be ruthless in using Anfield as a weapon.

The noise will be there. The question, on the first home league afternoon of a new era, is whether Liverpool can light the fuse.