Andoni Iraola joined Bournemouth from Rayo Vallecano in the summer; Cherries have faced a brutal fixture list but manager believes wins will come; watch Bournemouth vs Newcastle on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League from 5pm; kick-off 5.30pm
Saturday 11 November 2023 17:25, UK
Swapping life in Vallecas, based on the outskirts of Spain's land-locked capital Madrid, for the seaside town of Bournemouth may seem like a drastic change - but it's one that Andoni Iraola is taking in his stride.
The temperature may barely be reaching double figures as the Cherries manager sits down at the Vitality Stadium for an exclusive interview ahead of his side's game against Newcastle on Saturday - live on Sky Sports - but he insists: "I'm used to it.
"I come from the north of Spain, in San Sebastian - a very coastal city. The weather is not very different - it rains a lot also."
The weather is not the only area where Iraola sees similarities between life in Spain and England.
Whereas foreign players experiencing the Premier League for the first time often point to the pace or physicality as the biggest change, Iraola disagrees.
"I think it's not very different," says the 41-year-old. But there is one difference he has noticed.
"The atmosphere in England is the best I've seen because every stadium is full and you can see a lot of away fans," Iraola explains. "This makes the teams be more direct in their way of playing and be a little bit more brave.
"It makes the game more enjoyable."
Relaxed and good-humoured, Iraola's joy at life in the Premier League is clear. But as someone in their sixth season as a manager, he knows the way in which he will ultimately be judged is by results on the field.
Here, life has not been so smooth. Despite spending nearly £120m on nine players in the summer, Bournemouth have won just one of their 11 Premier League matches under Iraola, leaving them 18th.
But instead of pointing to the upheaval that often follows the appointment of a new manager as a reason for his side's slow start, Iraola admits: "We wanted to be higher and have more points, it's the truth.
"We knew the start was going to be difficult. Probably, with one or two small changes we could have five or six more points but I'm sure every manager in the Premier League would say the same. We need to improve."
But Iraola would be entitled to point to the brutal fixture list that greeted his arrival. In fact, Opta ranked Bournemouth's games across the first two months of the season as the toughest in the Premier League.
November has provided little respite for the Cherries. Immediately after finally claiming their first top-flight win of the season against Burnley, Bournemouth faced Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, before travelling to Manchester City and now hosting Newcastle.
Iraola laughs when asked whether his side would have liked a more benign set of fixtures following the win over Burnley as they look to build some much-needed momentum, before adding: "It has been like this since the beginning.
"We have had really tough opponents. We have played against almost all the top half."
Their trip to face champions City last weekend was a particularly rough experience. "As a player and manager, I've played much worse games than this one but I've never lost 6-1," admits Iraola. "They are just ruthless."
But again, he is in no mood to make excuses. "We also feel the need to take some points," he says. "Otherwise, in the second half [of the season], you are forced to take points."
While the table doesn't make for pleasant reading, Bournemouth supporters may take solace from the data that suggests Iraola's side are outperforming last season's team - led by Gary O'Neil - in a number of ways.
Under the Spaniard, the south-coast side are creating more chances, making more final-third entries and winning the ball higher up the pitch, while their expected goals (xG) are also up.
Unfortunately for Iraola, his side are missing more of those chances, conceding more goals and underperforming relative to their xG, whereas O'Neil's side overperformed in that metric.
What's more, only Burnley have made more errors leading to goals than the Cherries this season.
After less than six months in charge and coaching in England for the first time, it's understandable that Iraola's team is a work in progress. He wants them to be "more efficient" and admits the balance of the team when out of possession hasn't always been correct.
"There have been a couple of matches where we've been caught in between, where we've decided to be less aggressive but we haven't been efficient defensively," he explains. "The games where we didn't have clear aggression in the moment we had to press, I think we've been worse."
In possession, the fact that - according to the data - his team are more creative than last season is another potential excuse that Iraola declines to indulge, saying: "The most important stat is the points.
"Time helps in these situations but you have to improve and get results because the competition doesn't wait for anyone."
Iraola's career suggests he is capable of engineering the necessary turnaround. After half a season coaching in Cyprus, the former Athletic Bilbao and New York City right-back took charge of Mirandes, in Spain's second tier. Mirandes won just one of Iraola's first 10 games in charge before recovering to record their highest league finish in five years.
It was at Rayo Vallecano where Iraola really made his name, taking them into LaLiga at the first attempt before recording back-to-back 12th-placed finishes. In particular, taking 10 points from a possible 12 against Barcelona helped to burnish the manager's reputation.
But Iraola can recall the start of 2022, when he had to drag Rayo out of a slump that saw them fail to secure a win in 10 successive games.
"You always find a part when the schedule gets tighter," he says. Bournemouth's misfortune has been that such a period has come at the start of his reign.
"You miss the points and you have to keep pushing," he adds. "It's a challenge for me to try to turn this situation."
But it's a challenge that Iraola is relishing. After interest from Leeds last season, he chose Bournemouth as the club with which to fulfil his ambitions of coaching in the Premier League.
"It was a very good chance for me," he said. "I didn't have the chance as a player to play in the Premier League. It's something I had in my mind.
"I think it was the right decision. My family is very happy here."
Things may have fallen into place off the pitch but there's only one large issue Iraola still has to solve. "The only problem right now is winning games," he admits.
"But that is the reason I came here."
