Iraola's Bold Champions League Decisions at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola has wasted no time drawing hard lines at Liverpool. His first Champions League squad tells the story.

Chiesa and Endo cut from Europe

Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo have both been left out of Liverpool’s 25-man List A for the 2026-27 Champions League campaign, a brutal early call from the new head coach ahead of the Reds’ opener against Atletico Madrid on September 9.

This isn’t a clerical quirk. It’s a statement.

UEFA rules cap non-locally trained players at 17, and Iraola has used every slot with purpose. Big-money signing Bradley Barcola, fellow summer recruit Victor Munoz and even injured forward Hugo Ekitike all make the cut. Chiesa and Endo do not.

The message is clear: if you’re not central to the plan, you’re not on the plane.

Carragher: “They’re never going to kick a ball”

Jamie Carragher didn’t sugar-coat it when he discussed the decision on The Overlap. The former Liverpool defender believes the omissions reflect where the pair now sit in the Anfield hierarchy.

“Liverpool have got two players in the squad who are never going to play,” he 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.”

Carragher reserved his sharpest criticism for the handling of Endo’s situation.

“Endo should have been moved on,” he added. “He has done great, a bit of a cult hero.”

For a player once embraced for his industry and attitude, it’s a stark assessment of how quickly the landscape has shifted.

Marginal roles, shrinking futures

The numbers back up the feeling that both men have been drifting towards the margins.

Endo’s involvement collapsed last season: just eight Premier League appearances and a single Champions League outing. For a senior international midfielder under contract until 2027, that is not squad-rotation territory. That is spare-part territory.

Chiesa, tied down until 2028, has never really got going at Anfield. Fitness problems have chopped his Liverpool career into disjointed fragments, and he is again sidelined with a muscle issue. The current injury is not viewed as long term, yet Iraola has still chosen to register long-term absentees Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni ahead of a forward who is edging back towards availability.

That choice cuts deeper than any medical bulletin. It underlines exactly how far Chiesa has slipped down the pecking order.

Domestic scraps while Europe moves on

Liverpool face Ipswich Town in the league on Friday before Europe arrives at full volume. Atletico Madrid at Anfield is the first test in a demanding league-phase schedule that also sends Iraola’s side to Inter and Fenerbahce.

Those nights, for now, will belong to others.

Chiesa and Endo are effectively confined to domestic cup duty unless injuries tear open the door. UEFA rules allow for limited squad alterations later in the campaign in the event of serious setbacks, but that’s hardly the route any player wants to rely on.

So as the Champions League anthem rings out at Anfield, two seasoned internationals will be watching from the outside, their European ambitions parked and their Liverpool futures suddenly under a harsh, unforgiving light.