Sean Dyche has revealed his claim that Andoni Iraola plays ‘lower league football’ was meant as a compliment.
The former Nottingham Forest boss faced backlash for comments that emerged this week when discussing Iraola’s Bournemouth side on a recent podcast.
Dyche had reflected on the turnaround the Spaniard produced during the first of his three seasons with the Cherries.
Iraola was appointed as Bournemouth manager in the summer of 2023, but failed to win any of his first nine Premier League matches.
He began his tenure with just one victory in his opening 11 league outings, including a 3-0 loss to Dyche’s Everton in October 2023.
However, Iraola has since won all four meetings with Dyche since and improved on Bournemouth’s previous league finish in each of his three seasons as manager.
Those culminated with a record-high sixth place last term to qualify for the Europa League for the first time in their history.
Iraola has since left the club to take charge at Liverpool, with Marco Rose replacing him as Bournemouth boss.
What did Dyche say?
Despite his success on the south coast, Dyche claimed Iraola played ‘lower league football’ during an appearance on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast.
The talkSPORT co-host explained: “Iraola basically plays lower league football, but at a high level.
“They turn you and turn you, and force you into submission. High quality and high energy version.”
Turning his attention to Bournemouth’s transformation under Iraola, he added: “I marvelled at it because we ran all over them at Everton when he was trying to play what you would imagine is the Spanish way.
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“I think he is brilliant at managing, as you could tell he went ‘this ain’t going to work’.
“The next time we played them, he is bombing it down our throats, getting us turned, full-backs keep turning and having to run back towards their own goal, centre halves thinking that they never get a break. They looked a different outfit and he’s done a brilliant job.”
‘Massive compliment’ – Dyche
Following claims the former Burnley boss was aiming a dig at Iraola, Dyche clarifies his remarks on Tuesday.
Speaking to Jonny Owen live on talkSPORT, he heaped praise on Iraola’s Bournemouth side, admitting: “The stories are coming back out now, almost making out that I was doing him down by saying he played high-level lower league football.
“It was a massive compliment, I didn’t mean it in that way and they know I didn’t because I always said it as a compliment.
“There’s nothing wrong with getting the ball forward, they do it with real ability, players have a very high ability.
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“Some of those Bournemouth players are ever so underrated, well they’re not so much now, and lifting it behind teams, asking questions, wide players running at teams, putting teams under pressure, pressing from the off.
“Like a variant of a 4-4-2, two midfielders working their socks off, doing all the ugly hard yards, but with some ability as well.
“(Antoine) Semenyo, what a season he had. Now whether they can do it again now that the manager has changed would be a different thing.”
As for whether Iraola could implement the same approach at Liverpool, Dyche added: “But I wonder whether Iraola is going to take that thinking into a Liverpool camp, which to be fair it’s not that dissimilar to the end of (Jurgen) Klopp’s (reign).
“Playing a lot of longer passes, a lot more quality longer passes because as soon as I say that people think I’m doing them down. I’m not, I’m complimenting these players.
“If you’re a Premier League player and you can’t pass it 30 or 40 yards, you shouldn’t be a Premier League player.
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“So there’s nothing wrong with a longer pass and I think Iraola will use that wisely, particularly with a higher level.
“Even more higher level than the Bournemouth players have proved to be.”
