Andoni Iraola to cross paths with Inigo Perez again as Liverpool face Villarreal

Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola admits drawing Villarreal in the Champions League has not been good for his relationship with close friend Inigo Perez, whom he will be reunited with at Anfield on Tuesday.

The pair were team-mates at Athletic Bilbao and Iraola leapt to recruit Perez as his assistant at Rayo Vallecano as soon as he retired as a player.

They were separated when Iraola took over at Bournemouth in 2023 as his friend was denied a work permit but the Basque accepts that has not worked out too badly having seen Perez take Vallecano to last season’s Conference League final before earning a summer move to the Yellow Submarine.

“For me it’s a special game because Inigo is my friend. We know each other since the academy years at Athletic Club, we played with each other in the first team and as soon as he retired I was quick enough to grab him to help me as an assistant,” said Iraola.

“We have been through a lot of things together. It’s a privilege to face him in a Champions League game. It’s going to be a little strange but in a good way.

“It’s not good for the relationship when these things happen. I talk to him a lot but when you know you are going to face each other you stop talking.

“You kind of leave a distance, this is probably the moment when we have talked less.

“We normally call time to time to talk about La Liga, about the Premier League, about football, about our staff and families but now when the game gets closer we haven’t been in touch.”

The decision not to offer Perez a work permit still rankles with Iraola, but he is pleased to see his friend find his feet at the highest level of European football.

“We tried to do everything to convince the panel who decides if you are good enough and they decided he was not good enough to be an assistant coach,” he added.

“I complained in that moment because I was coming with just two guys – Pablo (de la Torre) and Inigo – but it has worked very well for him also. I am very, very happy for him.”

In another coincidence Villarreal were the opponents for Iraola’s final league match as a player for Athletic Bilbao, a 4-0 victory in which he scored.

“Lovely goal, eh? What a goal. The last game in San Mames for me, very special. I had one of the best last days that you can ask for, we qualified for Europe in that game,” he said.

“It has been a long time, many years ago, but I remember very well that day.”

Liverpool will be without Dominik Szoboszlai, who has aggravated a problem sustained on international duty, and Jeremie Frimpong, who has a new “massive” injury.

Iraola said Frimpong was likely to be out until after next month’s international break but Szoboszlai had not been set back any further.

“It’s not a new injury. It hasn’t worsened the injury. He is more or less in the same situation he was in the past week,” he said.

“We probably have to be a little bit more patient until he recovers fully but it is not like something where he has to wait a lot of time to come back.”