Liverpool’s 2-0 Collapses Should Seriously Concern Andoni Iraola

Liverpool Have Thrown Away Two-Goal Leads Twice

Against Leeds, Luke Chambers headed home from a Dominik Szoboszlai set piece in the seventh minute before Florian Wirtz doubled the lead just before half-time, finishing a team move involving Trey Nyoni and Jeremie Frimpong.

Leeds brought on Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Harry Wilson at the break, and the tide turned fast: Brenden Aaronson pulled one back after Milos Kerkez gave the ball away cheaply, before a Calvert-Lewin double either side of a Sean Longstaff strike completed the turnaround inside 25 second-half minutes.

The pattern repeated a week later at Anfield. Alexander Isak opened the scoring in the 16th minute after a Ryan Gravenberch through ball and Wirtz made it 2-0 before the half-hour mark.

Aleksandr Golovin’s stoppage-time penalty pulled Monaco back into it at 2-1, and after Iraola made wholesale second-half changes, a sloppy Szoboszlai pass let Mika Biereth in to equalize.

Substitute Paris Brunner then headed home an 88th-minute winner from an Anis Soubeir corner to complete Monaco’s comeback.

The Problem Isn’t Liverpool’s Ability To Score

Liverpool scored twice in both games, and the goals themselves came from good football — Wirtz and Isak combining fluently against Monaco, Chambers and Wirtz finishing clean chances against Leeds.

The attack isn’t the issue Iraola needs to solve; the problem is what happens once his side stops adding to the lead. Both collapses shared a clear thread: sloppy individual moments compounded by heavy second-half changes that disrupted Liverpool’s shape.

Kerkez’s giveaway set up Leeds’ first goal, and Szoboszlai’s loose pass did the same for Monaco’s equalizer. In both matches, Liverpool made wholesale substitutions once the lead looked secure, and in both matches the replacements struggled to hold what the starters had built.

That’s a game-management and squad-cohesion problem as much as an individual one, and it’s shown up in identical fashion against two very different opponents.

Iraola Has to Find the Answer Quickly

Two two-goal collapses in a week is not a coincidence Iraola can wave away as preseason rustiness.

With the Premier League season now only a few weeks off, he needs his side to be able to protect a lead against sides they should be beating comfortably, particularly once his squad rotates.

How he manages substitutions and sees out matches in the final preseason fixtures will say a lot about whether this is a quick fix or a structural issue.

The fix doesn’t need to be complicated. Staggering substitutions rather than making them in one block would let Liverpool keep a settled spine on the pitch for longer.

Furthermore, holding back at least one experienced defensive midfielder or center-back as a like-for-like change would give the back line more protection when it’s reshuffled.

Both collapses came after Iraola freshened up several positions at once — against Monaco in particular, the sloppy pass that led to Biereth’s equalizer came moments after a wave of changes disrupted Liverpool’s rhythm.

Smaller, better-timed substitutions, rather than fewer of them, look like the more realistic fix.

End Of My Liverpool’s 2-0 Collapses Rants

There is still time to sort it out. Liverpool have one more preseason friendly, against Como at Anfield on August 16, before the competitive season begins, and preseason exists precisely so problems like this surface before they matter.

Iraola will hope his side’s finishing keeps producing two-goal leads, and that the next one holds up.