Andoni Iraola heaped praise on defender Jérémy Jacquet after his impressive performance in Liverpool‘s 1-0 victory over AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday.
Jacquet, who this week earned his first senior call-up for France, was the standout performer as Liverpool moved up to sixth in the table, helping them to keep three consecutive Premier League clean sheets for the first time since the start of the 2024-25 season.
“I’m happy for him because he’s also received his first international call-up,” Iraola said of the 21-year-old in his postmatch news conference. “He’s going with France and that is a big national team and I know that he is happy. He’s still very young, he is adapting really well to the Premier League.
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“I think in the first games, physically he was feeling the change of rhythm, he was finishing with cramps, finishing really tired and we had to sub him. Today has been a step forward. He looked solid until the end and I think he’s finished physically also in a good place. I hope he can continue this development.”
Liverpool were not at their best against Bournemouth, but secured the three points through a second-half strike from Alexander Isak. It was the Sweden international’s fourth league goal of the season — a higher tally than he managed in the entirety of last term.
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“The striker’s job is like this,” Iraola said. “He had a couple of crosses that he doesn’t hit properly, one chance [he couldn’t] control and this. I think he has to help us to be closer to the box, to play in the opposition half, to have meaningful possession and then, if the team is playing there, he will receive the rewards in terms of goals.”
Reflecting on Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the season, Iraola added: “I think overall we’ve improved, definitely since the first games. Some of the things we still need to improve, more things. I am happy it is the third clean sheet in a row in the league. Today is a kind of difficult game, I knew you never play comfortably here. Bournemouth don’t allow you to play comfortably normally, they put you under pressure and you have to adapt and you have to win this kind of game.
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“But we still have to get ready because the schedule that we have now, it’s very difficult. I think we are playing against top-four teams and then in between Champions [League] and then in between Chelsea in the Carabao [Cup] and everything in two, three days.
“So we have to get ready because this next month, after this break, it’s going be very demanding for us.”
