Iraola's Ruthless Decisions at Liverpool: Chiesa and Endo Omitted from Champions League Squad
Andoni Iraola has wasted no time drawing hard lines at Liverpool. Before he has even taken charge of a Champions League game for the club, the new manager has made two big-name casualties of his first European squad: Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo.
Iraola’s first ruthless call
Liverpool’s 25-man List A for the 2026-27 Champions League has been lodged ahead of their opener against Atletico Madrid on September 9. Chiesa and Endo are nowhere to be seen.
This isn’t a clerical oversight. It’s a deliberate choice wrapped inside strict UEFA regulations. Clubs can only register 17 players who are not locally trained. Iraola had to decide who really belonged in his European core. Chiesa and Endo did not make that cut.
Instead, the Spaniard has handed those precious non-homegrown slots to £123 million signing Bradley Barcola, fellow summer recruit Victor Munoz, and even injured forward Hugo Ekitike. Ekitike will not kick a ball for some time, but he still gets a seat at the table. Chiesa and Endo do not.
That tells its own story.
Carragher’s blunt verdict
Jamie Carragher did not sugar-coat it when asked about the situation on The Overlap. The former Liverpool defender believes the omissions expose where the pair now sit in Iraola’s plans.
"Liverpool have got two players in the squad who are never going to play," Carragher said. "And there are all these quotas, you can only have 17 players and all that. They have got Chiesa and Endo. It’s like they are never going to kick a ball."
He went further on Endo, questioning why the Japan international is still at the club.
"Endo should have been moved on," he added. "He has done great, a bit of a cult hero."
Cult status, though, does not win you a Champions League place. Not under a new manager trying to reshape a squad on his own terms.
Two careers drifting to the margins
On paper, both players should be part of Liverpool’s medium-term future. Endo is under contract until 2027, Chiesa until 2028. On the pitch, their roles have been shrinking.
Endo’s influence faded badly last season. He featured just eight times in the Premier League and made only a single Champions League appearance. From early symbol of a new midfield rebuild to fringe option in less than a year – the slide has been sharp.
Chiesa’s story has been more stop-start, and mostly stop. Fitness issues have stalked his time at Anfield. The 28-year-old is currently sidelined with a muscle problem, another setback in a career that has never really caught fire on Merseyside.
This latest injury is not thought to be long-term. Even so, Iraola has chosen to register long-term absentees Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni ahead of a forward who is edging back towards fitness. That is as clear a signal as any that Chiesa now sits on the outer ring of Liverpool’s European plans.
Domestic scraps and distant hopes
Liverpool’s immediate focus is split. Ipswich Town visit Anfield on Friday in the league before Atletico arrive to launch a daunting Champions League league-phase schedule that includes trips to Inter and Fenerbahce. The stakes, and the standard, are high.
Chiesa and Endo will watch that European journey from the outside. For now, their realistic minutes lie in domestic cup competitions and whatever league opportunities open up around rotation.
UEFA rules do allow for squad alterations if injuries bite deep enough later in the campaign. That is the thin thread their Champions League hopes now hang on: not form, not trust, but the possibility of an injury crisis.
For two established internationals once signed to shape Liverpool’s present, it is a brutal comedown. For Iraola, it is a clear message. This is his squad, his hierarchy, his risk.
The question now is simple: do Chiesa and Endo fight their way back into that hierarchy, or does this Champions League snub mark the beginning of the end of their Liverpool story?
