Liverpool's pre-season ended in embarrassment at Soldier Field on Sunday, as Leeds United came from two goals down to win 4-2 and hand Andoni Iraola a harsh lesson in his final run-out as the club's new head coach.
For 45 minutes it looked routine. Luke Chambers put the Reds ahead after seven minutes, and Florian Wirtz, back on the scoresheet in his second pre-season outing since his big-money move from Bayer Leverkusen, doubled the lead five minutes before the break after being teed up by Jeremie Frimpong.
Leeds boss Daniel Farke tore up his team at the interval, sending on Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Harry Wilson, and the substitutions transformed the game. Brenden Aaronson pulled one back on the hour mark, and from there Liverpool's defence simply came apart.
Calvert-Lewin, the former Everton striker now at Elland Road, headed home two long throw-ins from Ethan Ampadu either side of a Sean Longstaff strike, turning a comfortable Liverpool lead into a 4-2 defeat inside little more than 20 second-half minutes.
ONE reports that Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai was blunt in his post-match assessment of the collapse, saying the team had been undone by exactly the kind of set-piece failings that dogged them for spells last season. "We conceded two goals from set pieces and we must address this. Last season we saw how crucial corners and long throw-ins became," he said.
The result was Iraola's first defeat since arriving at Anfield to replace the sacked Arne Slot, and it will sting more for how avoidable it looked. Two goals scored from the same long-throw routine, delivered by the same player, is precisely the sort of preventable pattern a new coaching staff wants ironed out before the campaign, not repeated inside it.
There were individual positives for Liverpool amid the wreckage. Wirtz's goal continues an encouraging pre-season for the German playmaker, while academy graduate Trey Nyoni again caught the eye with an energetic display in midfield. Frimpong, whose fitness had been a concern, also came through the match without further injury trouble.
The friendly, played in front of a crowd of 49,128 at Soldier Field, was the closing fixture of both clubs' United States tours. Liverpool and Leeds now return to England to complete their preparations, with the Premier League season kicking off in roughly three weeks.
For Iraola, the priority is clear: turn a defence that leaked four goals in half an hour into one that can hold a lead, before the opening weekend arrives for real.
