Andoni Iraola's Ruthless Choices Leave Chiesa and Endo Out of Champions League
Andoni Iraola has not wasted time making enemies with sentiment at Anfield.
Bare weeks into his Liverpool reign, he has left two established internationals on the outside looking in. Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo will not feature in the club’s 2026-27 Champions League campaign, cut from the 25-man List A submitted ahead of the opener against Atletico Madrid on September 9.
For a new manager, this is more than a paperwork exercise. It is a statement.
Iraola draws a hard line
UEFA’s rules are unforgiving: a maximum of 17 non-locally trained players on List A. Every slot carries weight, every name a verdict.
Iraola has chosen to spend those places on £123 million signing Bradley Barcola, fellow summer arrival Victor Munoz, and even injured forward Hugo Ekitike. Chiesa and Endo did not make the cut. Not even as insurance.
The decision underlines where the pair now sit in the hierarchy. On the fringes, and drifting further.
The ruthlessness has not gone unnoticed.
Speaking on The Overlap, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher stripped away any illusion about their roles under Iraola. In his view, they are passengers.
“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.”
No soft landing there. No caveats.
Carragher reserved particular criticism for the club’s decision to keep Endo this summer.
“Endo should have been moved on,” he added. “He has done great, a bit of a cult hero.”
Cult status, yes. But not enough to sway a manager intent on reshaping the core of his side.
End of the road for Endo?
Endo’s trajectory tells its own story. Once a useful stopgap, now a spare part.
Last season, his Premier League minutes shrank to just eight appearances. In the Champions League, he featured only once. Those numbers rarely rebound under a new head coach who is already pruning his options.
He remains under contract until 2027, yet that security now feels like a technicality rather than a platform. On paper, he is a Liverpool player for years. On the pitch, his future looks reduced to domestic cup cameos and late-game fire-fighting, if that.
When Carragher says he “should have been moved on,” it sounds less like provocation and more like a cold reading of where the club is heading.
Chiesa left in the cold
Chiesa’s situation is different, but no less stark.
The 28-year-old’s Liverpool career has been continually disrupted by injuries. Another muscle problem currently keeps him out, though this one is not viewed as a long-term issue.
Yet the choices around him are revealing. Iraola has registered long-term absentees such as Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni in his Champions League squad. Players who will not be seen for some time are in. A winger edging back towards fitness is out.
That is not about availability. That is about trust, planning, and where a manager sees value in the months ahead.
Chiesa is under contract until 2028. On the evidence of this decision, his Anfield story is in danger of never really starting.
Domestic scraps and distant Europe
For now, Liverpool’s focus is split. A domestic test against Ipswich Town on Friday, then the lights and noise of Anfield for Atletico Madrid as the new-look league phase begins.
Inter and Fenerbahce lie in wait away from home, part of a demanding European schedule that has left Iraola in no mood for compromise when it comes to his squad.
Chiesa and Endo will watch that journey from a distance. Their immediate hopes lie in the domestic cups, where rotation and rest for the regulars might finally open a door. Only a severe injury crisis, and a permitted mid-campaign squad alteration, would drag them back into continental relevance.
For two seasoned internationals, that is a brutal comedown. For Iraola, it is simply the cost of building the team he wants.
The message is unmistakable: at Liverpool now, reputation and past service no longer guarantee you a seat on the European plane.
