Andoni Iraola’s Bold Liverpool Squad Decisions

Andoni Iraola has wasted no time drawing hard lines at Liverpool. Before a ball has even been kicked in Europe, he has left Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo out in the cold.

The new Liverpool head coach has submitted his 25-man Champions League squad for the 2026-27 campaign, and two established internationals are nowhere to be seen. When Atletico Madrid arrive at Anfield on September 9 for the Reds’ European opener, Chiesa and Endo will be watching, not walking out to the anthem.

Iraola’s first ruthless call

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

UEFA rules cap non-locally trained players on List A at 17. Iraola has chosen his. Big-money signing Bradley Barcola, a £123 million arrival, is in. So is fellow summer recruit Victor Munoz. Even Hugo Ekitike, currently sidelined with injury, has been handed a place.

Chiesa and Endo have not.

In a squad where every non-homegrown slot is a premium, Iraola has made clear who he believes can shape Liverpool’s European season. The message to those left out is brutal: you are not central to this project.

Carragher’s blunt verdict

Jamie Carragher did not sugar-coat it when speaking on The Overlap.

"Liverpool have got two players in the squad who are never going to play," the former defender 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 Sky Sports pundit went further on Endo’s situation, questioning why the Japan international is still at the club.

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

Cult status, though, does not earn you a Champions League squad place under a new, uncompromising manager.

Endo and Chiesa pushed to the fringes

Both players remain tied to Liverpool for the long term — Endo until 2027, Chiesa until 2028 — but their trajectories are heading in the opposite direction of Iraola’s team.

Endo’s role had already shrunk last season. He managed just eight Premier League appearances and only one outing in the Champions League. For a senior midfielder in his prime years, that is a sharp drop, and the latest omission underlines how far he has slipped down the pecking order.

Chiesa’s story has been one of constant interruption. Talent is not in doubt, availability is. A string of fitness issues has repeatedly stalled his Anfield career. At 28, he is again in the treatment room with a muscle problem. The current injury is not viewed as long-term, but that has not spared him.

Iraola has chosen to register long-term absentees such as Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni ahead of a player edging back towards fitness. That decision cuts through any ambiguity: Chiesa is now a peripheral figure in Liverpool’s European thinking.

Europe moves on without them

Liverpool’s immediate focus lies on a domestic fixture against Ipswich Town on Friday, but the Champions League looms large. Atletico Madrid’s visit to Anfield will launch a demanding league phase that also sends the Reds to Inter and Fenerbahce — trips that demand depth, resilience, and clarity of hierarchy.

Chiesa and Endo will not be part of that journey, at least not at the outset. Their season, for now, shrinks to the domestic cups and whatever league minutes they can claw back.

UEFA regulations do allow for alterations if an injury crisis bites later in the campaign. That is the lifeline: a door not fully closed, but barely ajar. Until then, Liverpool’s European story under Iraola will be written without two of its most recognisable names.

How long can players of that stature accept watching the biggest nights from the stands?