Two matches, two two-goal leads, two defeats. That is the pattern facing Andoni Iraola less than a fortnight before Liverpool open the Premier League season at Newcastle.
Monaco won 3-2 at Anfield on Sunday in Iraola’s first home game as Liverpool head coach, scoring three unanswered goals after Isak and Wirtz had put the hosts in control. It was a near-carbon copy of the 4-2 defeat to Leeds in Chicago a week earlier, when Liverpool had also led by two before folding.
Isak opened the scoring in the 16th minute and Wirtz added the second on 29 minutes. The lead lasted until first-half stoppage time, when Virgil van Dijk gave away a penalty converted by Aleksandr Golovin. Mika Biereth levelled from close range in the 56th minute before Paris Brunner headed in the winner two minutes from time.
Iraola points to fitness gap after changes
Iraola was candid afterwards about how quickly his players faded once he made changes.
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“We won the first two pre-season games, but the last two we cannot sustain the level we want for all of the game,” he told reporters, as quoted by beIN Sports. “As soon as we made some changes, players start to get tired and we cannot sustain that level. So, we have work to do.”
The Spaniard drew the parallel with the Leeds defeat himself.
“It was quite similar to the game we played against Leeds,” he said, in comments carried by AOL. “We played a good first half, especially a good 30 minutes. Right now we probably don’t have much more, in terms of the levels required to play like this. They deserved to turn around the game.”
From Bournemouth to Anfield in two months
Iraola arrived at Liverpool in the summer to replace Arne Slot, who was dismissed after a fifth-placed finish a year on from winning the Premier League title. The 43-year-old spent three seasons at Bournemouth, taking the south-coast club into European football for the first time with a sixth-placed finish in May.
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He has had barely two months to reshape a squad that also looks unrecognisable in attack. Isak and Wirtz are new, and the two matches in which Iraola has rotated through his options have both ended in second-half collapse.
One friendly left before Newcastle
Liverpool have one warm-up game left, a home fixture against Como on 16 August, before travelling to St James’ Park on 23 August for the opening round of the Premier League season.
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