Andoni Iraola admitted that lessons were learned from Liverpool’s 4-2 defeat to Leeds in pre-season.
Goals from Luke Chambers and Florian Wirtz saw the Reds take a commanding lead against Daniel Farke’s men in Chicago.
However, following a host of second-half changes – with the very impressive Trey Nyoni substituted – the Merseysiders struggled to maintain their early superiority, shipping four goals in 25 minutes.
There’s a message there, you’d think, for Liverpool’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, and our recruitment team.
“Not the result we wanted but probably the most useful friendly we played,” the Basque told LFCTV.
“In a positive way in the first half and in a negative way in the second half. I think we learned a lot. We can take good conclusions and solve some things.
“We want to get ready for the start of the season – that is when people want to see us play well and get results.”
Certainly, it felt like the former Bournemouth boss was again reiterating the club’s need for reinforcements with the window after a poor second-half showing exposed the limitations of the squad.
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Yes, of course, it’s worth bearing in mind that we’ll have a number of important first-XI stars to welcome back in the near future, including Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Mac Allister and Alisson Becker.
But it would be incredibly naive to assume that these options will be enough to inspire confidence from the fanbase in our potential fortunes this coming term.
We have to admit that faith in recruitment is starting to dwindle somewhat.
It has now been 46 days (and counting) since Liverpool completed the signing of Victor Munoz from Osasuna. And, really, if we’re not counting the addition of Jeremy Jacquet (who was signed in January), we’ve only made one addition to the squad all summer.
Given the scale of business that clearly needs to be done, that’s absolutely appalling.
Even more worryingly, we’ve had reports from reliable sources like Fabrizio Romano indicating that our talks with PSG for Bradley Barcola could go down to the wire.
“Barcola is more than open to joining the Liverpool project. Now it’s on club to club. The conversations will continue next week. My feeling is this is not going to be something imminent, so I don’t expect that he will go on Monday or on Tuesday. There is still work to do between Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain,” the Italian spoke on his eponymous YouTube channel.
“So there is a possibility this is going to be a saga in this summer transfer window. But this depends on Liverpool — on how much they want to spend. Paris Saint-Germain are open to negotiating, but there are conditions — expensive deal. So negotiations are going to take place for Barcola, but don’t forget that the player wants to go to Liverpool, and Liverpool consider Barcola their top, top target.”
Listen, that’s all and well and good if you’re also simultaneously working to complete other deals. But if the Barcola deal is going to impact every other piece of business we hope to conduct this summer – as we very much suspect is the case – then it seems Liverpool are risking going into the new season with a bare-bones squad.
If that’s seriously the plan, Liverpool need to reevaluate things in the market – and quickly. As wonderful a signing the French international would be, we’re currently short of a right-back, centre-back, holding six, central striker, and a right-sided attacker.
You can make the argument that the likes of Rio Ngumoha, Bradley Barcola and Victor Munoz are positionally versatile enough to cover the right flank.
But Liverpool cannot go into the 2026/27 season without any senior depth behind Virgil van Dijk and Jeremy Jacquet, nor can they ignore the right-back spot while Conor Bradley is still recovering from injury.
If the choice is the PSG star or a more complete squad, we’d rather see Andoni Iraola given the bodies his football requires.
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It’s blatantly obvious to every Liverpool fan that unless Iraola is backed with at least five to six players then he’s going to be in same trouble that got slot sacked. The wage bill has been Slashed with players leaving , saving FSG nearly 30 million a year and it seems to me that unless certain players are sold there won’t be any significant changes. FSG are looking for new investors because they don’t want to spend.
We’ve seen this all before from charlatan owners always reluctant to spend, it even happened under klopp where he was forced to play midfielders in defence and in ended up in the Europa league.
It’s unfair on Iraola, he has it all to do , especially with our defence. FSG are charlatan owners cutting costs, and the wage bill and increases in ticket prices. We’ve seen it all before, and you wonder why klopp walked out.
Such ingratitude for FSG leading LFC to two EPL titles after a 30-year drought, another UCL crown, two more UCL finals, rebuilding the Main Stand, rebuilding the Anfield Road Stand, and a whole new practice facility.
You ought to send John Henry an apology for being such a spoiled brat.
Same old FSG greedy Americans .
So 2 years on where has being opportunistic got you??
These replies are hilarious! 2025: Owners spending too recklessly! 2026: Owners too cheap to spend.
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