‘It Has Cost Us’—Andoni Iraola Pinpoints Major Issue in Surprise Liverpool Defeat

Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola has argued the noise inside Fenerbahçe’s Chobani Stadium contributed to his side’s miserable 3–2 defeat to the Turkish giants on Wednesday.

On a night full of scrappy goals, Liverpool were undone by three set pieces. Mason Greenwood’s deflected free kick wrong-footed Alisson in the first half, before a lack of communication between the goalkeeper and Cody Gakpo led to Fenerbahçe’s second equalizer of the night. Poor defending from a throw-in just minutes later handed Vedat Muriqi the winning goal.

“They are cheap goals,” Iraola said. “They are messy goals. It’s a free kick, it's quite far also, the free kick.

“You know, it is through the wall, [they are] mistakes that can cost you. The last goal ... it is a long throw, the first phase is control, but after a very long ball and Muriqi wins it.”

Asked to explain the poor nature of the goals, Iraola put it down to an inability for his players to communicate inside the deafening atmosphere of the Chobani Stadium.

“The second [goal] is ... I think Cody is the one touching the ball just in front of Ali,” Iraola recalled. “In the stadium it was almost impossible to communicate because it was so noisy. It was even difficult for me to give any kind of instruction.

“It was, I suppose, difficult there, the communication between Ali and Cody.”

After a run of five straight victories, Liverpool have now endured consecutive losses for the first time under Iraola.

There could be few complaints about the 1–0 defeat to Arsenal last weekend, in which Liverpool failed to even manage a shot on target, but Iraola was thoroughly unimpressed with the self-inflicted nature of his side’s latest setback.

“It’s frustration, because it’s a difficult place to come here and to play and we were for the most part of the game thinking, ‘O.K., we can win this one.’” Iraola said. “But obviously it hasn’t happened.

“We have conceded, especially the first goal and the third goal—the second one is a rebound—but the wall, I don’t think we set it properly and the last one, Muriqi jumps and wins the ball against three of our defenders. It’s something that definitely we have to defend better.”

He added: “It’s situations that we've been dealing [with] well until today.

“It’s something that we were very aware of in preseason. We’ve reinforced a lot the defensive set-play situation. We are doing very well in the league but today it has cost us. We know they are strong there, especially with Muriqi, with [Romelu] Lukaku, with the center backs, but maybe the last goal is the only one that is because they are strong in there, they are tall. The others are situations that we have to control better.”

A trip to Crystal Palace on Sunday, Nov. 8, will provide Liverpool with the perfect opportunity to offer an immediate response and perhaps even climb back into the Premier League’s top four.