Iraola's Challenge: Building Liverpool's Robust Core
Andoni Iraola has barely unpacked his boxes on Merseyside, but the reality of life at Liverpool has already hit him: this season will be a sprint run like a marathon.
Asked whether he can simply go full strength in the Carabao Cup, the Liverpool manager didn’t pretend.
“No,” he said. You can pick the same XI every game, he admitted, but at some point the legs go, the minds slow and the injuries arrive. The trick now is working out who can live with this tempo.
“There are players who play every three days with no issues. They are very robust, their performances don't change too much,” Iraola explained. Others, he knows, cannot. For them the risk spikes, the levels dip, and the data tells its own story.
He thought he already had a clear picture. Some players, he believed, were ready-made for this rhythm. With others, he’s discovering new limits in real time – and so are they. Many in this squad have never faced this volume of high-intensity minutes. “We are learning,” he said. And the schedule is offering no mercy.
Tottenham, Rotation and a Restless Kop
The Carabao Cup usually gives Premier League managers a breather. A home tie against lower-league opposition, a chance to throw in academy kids, fringe players, and those in need of rhythm.
Not this week.
Liverpool have drawn Tottenham, a fellow top-flight side, even if the Lilywhites arrive burdened by a poor start. That changes everything. Rotate too heavily and you risk a jolt to confidence and another flat night. Go too strong and you pile more strain onto a group already looking stretched by the calendar.
There’s also the backdrop of Saturday’s stalemate against Fulham. Some inside Anfield will want a statement performance, a strong team, a reaction. Others will look at the Champions League commitments, the league grind and the Carabao Cup and argue the opposite: rotate hard now or pay later.
The dilemma is Iraola’s. The noise around it belongs to everyone else.
A Cup Liverpool Know Intimately
If there is one competition that feels woven into Liverpool’s modern history, it is this one.
No club has lifted the League Cup more often. Ten times the trophy has ended up in red hands.
The first came in 1980-81, the beginning of an extraordinary run of four straight triumphs that ended in 1984. That early-80s side turned the competition into a habit.
Then came a long wait. Not until 1995 did Liverpool win it again, Steve McManaman scoring twice against Bolton at Wembley to drag the trophy back to Anfield.
The new millennium brought a fresh wave. Under Gerard Houllier, Liverpool claimed the cup in 2001 and again in 2003, the latter at the expense of fierce rivals Manchester United in the final.
Kenny Dalglish, in his second spell in charge, added another in 2012, edging past Cardiff City on penalties.
The next triumph took a decade. In 2022, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool survived an extraordinary 11-10 penalty shootout against Chelsea. Klopp then delivered number 10 in 2024, again beating Chelsea in the final to extend the club’s record.
Now Iraola walks into that legacy. The question is simple and sharp: can he take Liverpool to number 11?
Stuttering Start, Heavy Legs
Two league games at Anfield. Two draws. That statistic alone jars.
For just the third time in 63 years, Liverpool have failed to win either of their opening home league fixtures. It is not the launch Iraola would have sketched on the whiteboard.
The contrast with midweek was stark. Against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, Liverpool were all speed and aggression, a side bristling with intent against a Diego Simeone team that reached the semi-finals last season.
Three days later, against a fragile Fulham side who had conceded seven goals in their first three league matches, the energy evaporated. The goalless draw felt flat. The Reds looked physically and mentally drained, a different team entirely from the one that had swarmed Atleti.
This was the first real stress test of Iraola’s style under a two-games-a-week load. The verdict from the stands was obvious: this is not how Anfield expects its side to look.
Liverpool remain unbeaten. There is no crisis. But six points from four games will not satisfy anyone inside the club, especially when four of those points have slipped away at home to Nottingham Forest and Fulham, with another draw at Newcastle and a lone win at Ipswich.
Big-Name Front Line, Small Return
The numbers up front underline the problem.
The £364m attacking trio of Alexander Isak, Bradley Barcola and Florian Wirtz started a league game together for the first time. On paper, it looks devastating. On the pitch, it is still a sketch.
Liverpool fashioned some chances, but nowhere near enough. Isak managed just 16 touches in 90 minutes – the second fewest ever recorded for a Liverpool outfield player. The only time he had fewer? Two weeks earlier, against Forest, when he had 14.
Wirtz, so impressive and inventive against Atletico, looked nothing like that player. Barcola and Isak had moments, glimpses of the understanding they could build, but it is clearly a partnership that needs time and repetition.
Time, though, is the one thing this schedule refuses to give.
Fulham Dig In, Liverpool Run Out of Ideas
Fulham arrived under pressure and under scrutiny. Alvaro Arbeloa, who played 98 games for Liverpool between 2007 and 2009, had lost all three league matches since taking charge in the summer. Anfield could easily have turned into a long, bruising afternoon for him.
Instead, his side left with their first Premier League point of the season and might have stolen all three.
Iraola made three changes from the Atletico win, bringing in Kostas Tsimikas, Ryan Gravenberch and Victor Munoz for Milos Kerkez, Alexis Mac Allister and Rio Ngumoha. Arbeloa responded with two of his own: Austrian centre-back David Affengruber debuted in place of Joachim Andersen and Sander Berge came in for Cesar Palacios.
Fulham should have struck early. A mix-up between Alisson and Gravenberch gifted Gonzalo Garcia a clear sight of goal, only for Jeremy Jacquet to bail Liverpool out with a goal-line clearance.
The visitors were the better side in the first half. Josh King forced a save from Alisson from inside the box, Antonee Robinson headed wide, and Liverpool’s control never truly settled.
At the other end, Munoz’s header drew a strong stop from Bernd Leno, and a Bradley Barcola volley was deflected behind by Timothy Castagne. Half-chances, not dominance.
Tsimikas, who had struggled, made way for Kerkez at the break. By the hour, Gravenberch and Munoz had also been withdrawn for Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo as Iraola chased a spark that never quite came.
Isak finally carved out an opening but shot too close to Leno. Dominik Szoboszlai unleashed a powerful drive that the Fulham goalkeeper again repelled.
With 18 minutes left, Iraola threw on Ngumoha and Jeremie Frimpong. Fresh legs, fresh ideas. The pattern stayed the same.
Isak headed wide from a stoppage-time corner and Fulham, who threatened late themselves through King and Kevin, held firm for a point that felt huge for Arbeloa and deeply frustrating for the home crowd.
VAR Fury and Derby Fallout
While Liverpool wrestled with fatigue and finishing, the Premier League spotlight swung towards Old Trafford and a different kind of anger.
After Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester City, Lisandro Martinez did not hide his fury over Erling Haaland’s winner and the officiating that allowed it.
“What I can't understand is the rules,” the defender said. He spoke of referees visiting clubs each season, explaining the laws “for one hour” with apparent certainty, only for “five or six people” to make “these kind of mistakes” in the Premier League. For Martinez, in a league he calls the best in the world, with the best teams and players, going home with what he described as “this injustice” was “unacceptable”.
The controversy now moves into the VAR booth.
The first edition of Match Officials Mic’d Up is due to be broadcast on Tuesday, and the expectation is that the audio around Haaland’s goal will be aired. The key question is simple: did the VAR team decide there was no offside offence by Enzo Fernandez, or did they simply forget to assess it?
The stakes are high because the incident looks familiar. In 2023, in a game between Arsenal and Brentford, VAR Lee Mason failed to check an offside position for Christian Norgaard in the build-up to an Ivan Toney goal. Human error, pure and costly.
Haaland was onside from Josko Gvardiol’s pass. The entire debate rests on whether Fernandez touched the ball and, crucially, whether his actions interfered with Martinez or Senne Lammens. It is hard to argue he did not affect them.
Were the VAR officials so fixated on whether Fernandez made contact with the ball that they ignored his impact on the defenders? The audio should reveal the answer.
The Season Tightens
For Liverpool, the questions are different but just as sharp.
Can Iraola identify his truly “robust” players quickly enough to survive a season of relentless two-game weeks? Can a £364m attack click under this strain? And can a club that treats the League Cup like an old friend trust rotation against Tottenham without inviting more turbulence?
The fixture list will not wait for answers.
