Iraola Faces Liverpool's Depth Challenge Against Tottenham

Andoni Iraola has barely had time to unpack on Merseyside, but already he is deep into the hardest part of a Liverpool manager’s job: working out who can go again. And again. And again.

The Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham at Anfield would normally be a gentle early-season shuffle for a Premier League giant. Rotate heavily, blood a youngster or two, survive a scare, move on. Not this time. Liverpool have been thrown straight into a top-flight duel at a moment when their legs and minds are already fraying.

Iraola knows it. And he isn’t pretending otherwise.

“You can decide and put the same players in every game,” he said. “The problem is there'll be a moment when they're really tired. And there is more risk of injury.”

That’s the calculation now. Not just who is good enough, but who is robust enough.

“There are players who play every three days with no issues,” he added. “They are very robust, their performances don't change too much. There are other players where the risk is bigger and the performances are different. I have to learn who is ready to play games every three days and who needs a rest so their performance level isn't affected.”

He thought he had some of those answers. He’s discovering he didn’t.

Rotation or Reaction?

The dilemma is brutal in its simplicity. Liverpool have just stumbled through back-to-back home draws in the league. Anfield, usually a guarantee of early-season momentum, has watched Nottingham Forest and Fulham both escape with a point. Six points from four games, three draws, just one win at Ipswich. For a club with title ambitions, it jars.

So what now against Spurs?

The instinct after a flat 0-0 at home is to hit back with a full-strength side, to restore rhythm and authority. But the schedule is unforgiving. A draining Champions League win over Atletico Madrid in midweek, Fulham on Saturday, Tottenham on Tuesday, and at least seven more Champions League games to come. This is not a one-off storm. It’s the forecast for the next six months.

Iraola is trying to manage a squad still learning his demands at two games a week. The evidence from Saturday was stark: Liverpool looked physically and mentally drained, a shadow of the team that had ripped into Atletico days earlier.

On this first real look at how his style copes with the churn of matches, the warning signs were there.

A Heavyweight Cup Tie, Not a Rehearsal

The context makes Tuesday’s selection far more delicate than a standard EFL Cup outing. Premier League clubs often treat these early rounds as a laboratory: fringe players, academy graduates, tactical experiments. The safety net is usually lower-league opposition.

Instead, Liverpool have Tottenham. A fellow Premier League side, struggling for form but still packed with enough quality to punish any misjudged rotation.

Go strong and you risk overloading players already showing signs of fatigue. Rotate heavily and you risk another frustrating night, more questions, more scrutiny. Iraola has to decide whether the Carabao Cup is a platform to regain momentum or a pressure valve to protect legs for the league and Europe.

The fans will have their own ideas on who should start. The head coach’s view, though, is shaped by GPS data, medical reports and a growing sense that some of his squad simply cannot be asked to go again every three days. Not yet.

A Club Built on This Trophy

If any competition feels like home for Liverpool, it is this one.

Ten times they have lifted the League Cup, more than anyone else. The story stretches back to 1980-81, the first of four consecutive triumphs that turned the trophy into almost an annual event at Anfield, the run ending in 1984.

Then came the wait. Over a decade passed before Steve McManaman’s brace against Bolton at Wembley in 1995 delivered number five. The new millennium dragged the cup back into Liverpool’s orbit. Gerard Houllier oversaw the 2001 success and was back for a seventh in 2003, this time against Manchester United in the final.

Kenny Dalglish, in his second spell in charge, added another in 2012 after a penalty shootout win over Cardiff City. The next came 10 years later, in unforgettable fashion: an 11-10 shootout epic against Chelsea in 2022 under Jurgen Klopp.

Klopp then made it 10 in 2024, again at Chelsea’s expense, before walking away and leaving Iraola to inherit a club that expects to compete for this trophy, not treat it as an afterthought.

The question now is whether the new man dares to chase number 11 in his first season, or whether pragmatism wins out.

Fulham Draw Exposes Early Fault Lines

Saturday’s goalless draw with Fulham sharpened all of these issues.

For just the third time in 63 years, Liverpool have failed to win either of their opening home league games. The numbers tell you it’s not a crisis. Unbeaten. Four draws from five in all competitions, one win. The performances tell you something else.

Against Fulham, less than 72 hours after beating Atletico, the intensity dropped. The urgency disappeared. A Fulham side low on confidence, beaten in each of their first three league games under Alvaro Arbeloa, left Anfield with a point and might have had more.

Liverpool’s problems began with themselves. A mix-up between Alisson and Ryan Gravenberch gifted Gonzalo Garcia a chance that Jeremy Jacquet had to hack off the line. Josh King forced a save from Alisson, Antonee Robinson headed wide. Fulham were better in the first half and Liverpool looked stuck in second gear.

Iraola had rotated, bringing in Kostas Tsimikas, Gravenberch and Victor Munoz for Milos Kerkez, Alexis Mac Allister and Rio Ngumoha. The changes did not bring freshness; they brought uncertainty. Tsimikas struggled and was hooked at half-time for Kerkez. By the hour, Gravenberch and Munoz were also gone, replaced by Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo as Iraola tried to wrestle control back.

There were flickers. Munoz forced a strong save from Bernd Leno with a header. Bradley Barcola saw a volley deflected behind by Timothy Castagne. Alexander Isak finally found space to shoot, only for Leno to gather comfortably, and the Fulham keeper later denied a powerful strike from Dominik Szoboszlai.

But the cutting edge that had shredded Atletico was missing.

Big-Name Attack Still Misfiring

The £364m attacking trio of Isak, Barcola and Florian Wirtz started a league game together for the first time. On paper, it looks devastating. On grass, it is still a work in progress.

Liverpool had chances, but nothing like the volume or clarity Iraola would demand. Isak, once again, barely touched the ball – just 16 touches in 90 minutes, the second fewest for an outfield Liverpool player on record, having set the low mark with 14 against Nottingham Forest a fortnight earlier.

Wirtz, so bright and influential against Atletico, looked a shadow of that player. Barcola and Isak had a few encouraging moments, but there was no sustained threat, no sense that Fulham were hanging on for long spells.

By the 72nd minute, Iraola had thrown on Ngumoha and Jeremie Frimpong in another double change. Still, the breakthrough never came. Isak headed wide from an injury-time corner. At the other end, Fulham threatened through King and Kevin late on and held their nerve for a first Premier League point under Arbeloa.

Liverpool left to rue not just dropped points, but the growing evidence that this attack needs time – and maybe rest – to click.

Learning on the Run

This is the reality Iraola must navigate. A demanding style, a brutal schedule, a squad still being mapped out in terms of who can handle three games in a week without their performance dipping.

“It is still early,” as the mood around Anfield acknowledges, but the margin for error is thin when you are expected to chase honours on multiple fronts. Dropped points at home to Forest and Fulham, another draw at Newcastle, and only one league win at Ipswich have already nudged Liverpool off the pace they would want.

With at least seven more Champions League nights ahead and Tottenham arriving in the Carabao Cup, the learning curve is steep and the fixture list is unrelenting.

Can Iraola find his “robust” core quickly enough to keep Liverpool in the hunt for trophies – and is this cup the stage where he proves it?