Marco Rose at Bournemouth: What will new head coach change from Andoni Iraola, after scoring 21 goals in pre-season?

Marco Rose at Bournemouth: What will new head coach change from Andoni Iraola, after scoring 21 goals in pre-season? | Football News

August 19, 2026:

Marco Rose at Bournemouth: What will new head coach change from Andoni Iraola, after scoring 21 goals in pre-season? | Football News

“Straight away I thought – what a lovely bloke. He knew everything about the club. All the history.”

It’s not taken Marco Rose long to get his feet under the table at Bournemouth. Why would it? This is a club whose succession planning is among the best in the Premier League. Who lost more than £250m of playing talent in one season – and still made it the most successful in their 123-year history.

The German is not the second coming of Andoni Iraola but the intention is that he is not far off. Certainly, he is keen to get to know the place as well as his predecessor.

“Right from the start, not just him but his staff went round every department, gave them a time of day,” club legend and ambassador Steve Fletcher tells Sky Sports. “It didn’t matter if you were a groundsman or in the accounts or media or marketing or you’re a chef.

“He went up and he chatted to them all. And it’s not just lip service, I can see he has a real interest in everybody.”

On the pitch, if you want to continue his high-pressing legacy then a student of Jurgen Klopp isn’t a bad option to pick.

Given their shared philosophies, perhaps it is no surprise Iraola is also a fan of his work. “Marco Rose’s Gladbach was one of my favourite teams,” he said back in 2023.

The Spaniard’s Cherries produced the third-most direct attacks in the Premier League last season, and ended with the fourth-most shots from high turnovers.

More importantly, they scored the fifth-most goals across the division and only 13 fewer than title winners Arsenal.

“Andoni didn’t leave a lot of space to improve,” admitted Rose in pre-season. “The pressure is on.”

He has certainly attempted to address that, with 21 goals scored across five friendlies and even new centre-back Antonio Silva praised for his attacking input.

Evanilson’s role appears to have moved back from leading the line to more of a False 9, leaving the two wide men – likely Rayan and Ben Gannon-Doak or Justin Kluivert – to run beyond him and to good effect from what we’ve seen so far. Klopp’s Liverpool, anyone?

How much you can read into any friendly, least not a 10-1 win over Genoa – who conceded fewer league goals than Bournemouth in Serie A last season – is always limited. But they do give an idea of the direction of travel and if Rose is looking to improve anywhere, in front of goal appears his prime target.

That should not be a surprise. Rose’s solitary season in charge at Borussia Dortmund five years ago saw them break their league scoring record by netting 85 goals, more than any campaign under even mentor Klopp.

It was the his side’s poor defending, particularly in Europe, which instead cost him and it is balancing his squad’s continental endeavours where Rose will face his biggest test this season.

Even as the Cherries’ third-highest all-time goalscorer, Fletcher sees it that way too.

“We’ve got to acclimatise to playing Thursday and Sunday. Your fixtures could get changed rapidly and we’ve got to be very adaptable and that’s going to be new for this football club,” he said, speaking as MrQ celebrated becoming AFC Bournemouth’s new official sleeve partner.

“Fortunately the manager is very experienced but for a lot of the players who are not experienced to playing in Europe it’s going to be a big adjustment. It’s going to be one hell of an occasion. I’m sure there’ll be a few tears shed by everybody.”

A settled summer has helped Rose get his ideas across early with two of three current additions brought in at least three weeks before the start of the Premier League season, which kicks off live on Sky Sports at Manchester City on Sunday.

But perhaps the best business of the summer, to use the old cliche, is the players who haven’t left. Alex Scott has spent much of the transfer window being linked with a move to a big-six club, but Bournemouth have made their desire to keep him at the Vitality Stadium crystal clear.

Eli Kroupi Junior looks set for a spell at the top sooner rather than later but is going nowhere fast after suffering a foot injury on a training camp in Austria last month.

If Iraola could produce what he did after a summer of losing his best players, imagine what could be possible now Rose has kept his? The one thing that’s certain is that it’s unlikely to be a dull season at the Vitality.

Source link

tags

Abkhazia Afghanistan Africa Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curacao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Northern Cyprus Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Transnistria Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda UK Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uruguay USA Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe