At some point, even Steven Gerrard had enough. Arne Slot had to stop talking about low blocks. It was, as the former legendary midfielder explained, a part of being at Liverpool Football Club, as if it was a natural feature of being part of such an institution.

One suspects, whether he says so or not publicly, Andoni Iraola will encounter similar frustrations as he prepares for his debut season as Head Coach of England’s biggest football club. Welcome to Liverpool, where the high-press, high-throttle, suffocating collectivism of the heavy-metal football so adored by its blue-collar fanbase, only really works if an opponent is daft enough to leave some green behind their defensive lines.

On the one hand, Liverpool may find that, in a league with more money and skill distributed across squads, opponents will be daring enough to play progressively and walk into waiting traps laid out a team of methodical pressing.

Certainly, many teams now play with fearless abandon and Anfield itself hasn’t evoked fear for a while. And against better teams, Anfield relishes being the twelfth man of reminding opponents that present-day form and talent cannot really match the sheer power of a stadium that, when it’s rocking and swaying, is historic, compelling and almost inevitable.

But there are other issues to consider too.

Not everyone will play so recklessly into the hands of Liverpool’s high press. There are numerous options for dealing with an opponent that seeks to control time and space on the pitch by pursuing the ball vigorously.

The first is by sitting deep and avoiding the first wave of pressure through long-balls in behind the opponents’ press. Pep Guardiola once utilized this against Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund during their first league encounter in Germany. Guardiola played Javi Martinez in a higher position and surprised Klopp through bypassing Dortmund’s ferocious pressing, guiding Bayern to a 3-0 win. This has its drawbacks of routinely squandering possession as the ball will simply come back your way. But high-press teams are usually built around quickly exploiting spaces rather than having to patiently construct them.

The second, which is a riskier approach, is by engaging the high-press team through possession-based football. Guardiola also tried this at Anfield with Manchester City against Klopp and if it sometimes quietened the crowd, it relied very much on the concept of order, which would quickly evaporate into chaos once Liverpool got into space behind them.

The final approach is to simply survive. A team that presses high cannot sustain its levels. The World Cup has been an example of this. Japan and Brazil played out an enthralling game where Japan’s organized waves of pressure led them to leading and appearing rather comfortable. Yet, they tired. Their energy levels were depleted, and they retreated against Brazil’s inescapable pressure.

This is what Iraola will likely have to contend with. Teams will not try to engage with Liverpool’s high press with proactive football. Instead, it’s likely to be a case of waiting, frustrating and surviving.

The onus is then on whether Iraola is able to find other avenues to victory. Klopp was blessed with players of individual creativity such as Roberto Firmino and two marauding full-backs who could enable that. For Liverpool, much of it will likely fall on Florian Wirtz.

READ MORE:  Vladimír Šmicer believes Florian Wirtz’s success at Anfield will depend on the club finding his best position

There remains much to be enthused by with Liverpool under Iraola, but he will quickly find low-block opposition to be a recurring theme. The issue is how he will deal with this.

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