Iraola's Ruthless Choices for Liverpool's Champions League Squad

Andoni Iraola has not taken long to leave fingerprints all over Liverpool’s new era. His first Champions League squad tells its own story – and it is a ruthless one.

Iraola draws a hard line

With Liverpool submitting their 25-man List A for the 2026-27 Champions League, two big names were nowhere to be seen. Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo, both full internationals, both under contract for years to come, have been cut adrift from Europe before a ball is kicked.

The decision is framed by UEFA’s registration rules. Clubs can name only 17 players who are not locally trained. Those 17 places are gold dust. Iraola has chosen to spend them on £123 million signing Bradley Barcola, fellow summer recruit Victor Munoz, and even injured forward Hugo Ekitike.

Chiesa and Endo did not make the cut. Not even as cover.

It is not a clerical oversight. It is a statement.

Carragher: “They’re never going to play”

Jamie Carragher did not bother to sugar-coat it when he discussed the situation on The Overlap. The former Liverpool defender stripped the decision down to its bare reality.

“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.”

The sharpest edge of his criticism was reserved for the club’s handling of Endo.

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

That phrase – “cult hero” – captures Endo’s strange Liverpool existence. Admired, appreciated, but increasingly surplus.

Endo and Chiesa on the margins

The numbers back up the sense of drift. Endo’s role shrank badly last season: just eight Premier League appearances, and only one outing in the Champions League. From early-season necessity to late-season afterthought.

Chiesa’s story has been different but no less frustrating. His Liverpool career has been repeatedly broken up by injuries, each comeback met by another setback. Now 28, he is again sidelined with a muscle problem. The current issue is not considered long-term, yet his exclusion from the Champions League squad cuts deeper than any scan result.

Iraola has chosen to register long-term absentees such as Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni ahead of a winger edging back towards fitness. That hierarchy is revealing. It underlines where Chiesa now sits in the new manager’s plans – on the outside, looking in.

Europe moves on without them

Liverpool open their European campaign at Anfield against Atletico Madrid on September 9, a fixture that crackles with history and jeopardy. Before that, Ipswich Town visit on Friday in the league, a domestic hurdle to clear before the spotlight swings to the Champions League.

The group phase will test Iraola’s squad depth: trips to Inter and Fenerbahce loom, hostile grounds and heavy legs guaranteed. Those are the kind of nights for which experienced internationals usually prove invaluable.

Yet Chiesa and Endo will watch those journeys from afar, their roles narrowed to domestic cups and whatever league minutes fall their way. Only a serious injury crisis – and a permitted squad alteration – would drag them back into the European frame.

For now, the message is stark. Iraola has drawn his line. Liverpool are moving into a new continental campaign with a new core, new priorities and new faces trusted to carry the load.

Chiesa and Endo must decide whether they can wait for that door to reopen, or accept that, under this manager, it may already have closed.