Andoni Iraola's first evening in the Anfield dugout ended in defeat, and in a blunt admission about the state of his new squad's conditioning. Liverpool surrendered a two-goal lead to lose 2-3 to Monaco in Sunday's pre-season friendly, and the Spaniard did not dress it up afterwards.
"There isn't enough energy to play 90 minutes," Iraola said, according to ONE. "Those who played their first or second match showed energy, the problem is that right now they probably don't have the energy for 90 minutes. They started to get tired, and that's something that will take time. We need more training with them, but we can take a lot of positives from today, and also a lot of negatives."
Liverpool had made a lively start. Alexander Isak put them ahead in the 16th minute, and Florian Wirtz doubled the lead 13 minutes later, giving the Anfield crowd an early glimpse of the front two Iraola is building his attack around. But Monaco, the Ligue 1 side who finished as Liverpool's opponents on this pre-season stop, clawed their way back into it before the break.
Aleksandr Golovin converted a penalty on the stroke of half-time to make it 2-1, and Mika Biereth levelled early in the second half. Monaco completed the turnaround in the 88th minute through substitute Paris Brunner, sealing a 3-2 win that mirrored, uncomfortably for Iraola, a similar collapse from a two-goal lead against Leeds United the previous week.
"We played a good first half but we don't have much more in terms of the level required to play like this," Iraola said, per ONE. "And then they were a lot better in the second half."
The manager, who took over at Anfield in June after Liverpool sacked Arne Slot following a disappointing title defence, made wholesale changes at the interval as he tries to spread minutes across his squad before the Premier League season begins. Alisson and Virgil van Dijk both featured, alongside Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah, while Victor Muñoz made his first non-competitive appearance for the club as a substitute.
Iraola, who arrived at Liverpool on a two-year deal after leading Bournemouth to a top-six finish and their first European qualification, was the club's only candidate for the job once Slot was dismissed. He now has to knit together a squad still building match sharpness with the new season fast approaching, and said he hopes to have further options available, including Curtis Jones, for the next warm-up match against Como.
"As soon as we made some changes, they start to get tired, we cannot sustain that level, so we have work to do," Iraola said of the pattern that has now repeated itself in back-to-back friendlies. There is no Israeli involvement in this fixture, but with Liverpool among the clubs Israeli football fans follow most closely, Iraola's opening weeks on Merseyside will be watched with interest before the competitive season kicks off.
