News'Very good coaches' - Andoni Iraola discusses new members of backroom staff

Shortly after Iraola was appointed head coach, Tommy Elphick, Shaun Cooper, Pablo de la Torre and Tom Webber also made the move to Merseyside.

Elphick and Cooper are now first-team coaches with the Reds, while De La Torre was installed as assistant coach and Webber made first-team tactical analyst.

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"For me, it was important they came with me," Iraola said. "Pablo is a physical coach but has been with me almost all the years I have been coaching.

"So for me, he is much more than a physical coach really. He is an assistant and we know each other very well.

"I was very lucky with Tommy and Shaun when I arrived at Bournemouth, because I was unlucky to have the issue with my [former] assistant coach Inigo Perez.

"After it, it worked out very well for him because now he is coaching Villarreal – maybe we play him in the Champions League.

"But when I had Tommy and Shaun there, we did not feel the need to send in another assistant.

"They were very prepared, they were very helpful for me in terms of understanding the English culture, the mentality of the players, what they were used to, what they like in training, even the small details that maybe in Spain are different.

"Also the experience Tommy has at Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton, Huddersfield, they can be in a closer position to the players, if you want, they can feel more identified. I am a little bit older – some of the players maybe didn't know I was a player.

"So, they are very good to me, they are very good coaches. We kind of understand the game similarly and they have different roles in the coaching staff. They help with set-pieces also. That's the reason I continued with them."