Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola bemoaned his side’s poor defending of set pieces leading to “cheap, messy” goals which cost them a 3-2 defeat and the loss of their 100% Champions League record against Fenerbahce on Wednesday.
On a chaotic night in Istanbul, the visitors twice conceded the lead given to them by Trey Nyoni — scoring his first goal for the club — and Alexander Isak, with goals from Englishmen Mason Greenwood and Archie Brown before Vedat Muriqi scored a 79th-minute winner.
It was the first time they had conceded three in three successive European games, extending their woeful record in Türkiye to just one win, one draw and seven defeats and they have yet to keep a clean sheet in the country, which also extends to Champions League and Super Cup finals.
“Cheap goals. Messy goals,” Iraola said in his postgame news conference.
“The free kick is quite far out, through the wall. The last goal was a long throw, the second one Cody [Gakpo] touched the ball just in front of Ali [goalkeeper Alisson Becker].
“In the stadium it was almost impossible to communicate, it was difficult for me to give instructions and the communication was difficult between Cody and Ali.”
After five successive wins in all competitions they have now lost back-to-back games, but this defeat was far more damaging to morale than Sunday’s reverse to Arsenal.
Set-pieces were an Achilles heel last season, but Liverpool had seemingly rectified that this term before collapsing against a team who had been hammered 6-0 by Aston Villa last month.
“We conceded from a free kick, a corner, a long throw and that has hurt us,” Iraola added. “We have gone in front twice, we conceded in situations we should have definitely done better [with].
“We have been dealing well with these situations up to today. It has cost us. We have to do better.”
Iraola defended his team selection after making five changes from Sunday, including starting with Isak, Florian Wirtz and Cody Gakpo on the bench before introducing them in the second half.
“We have done this not just today, we have done it all season. All the games midweek we have been changing four or five as it’s impossible to retain the starting XI,” Iraola added.
“I trust the squad to sustain the level and I don’t think it is the main reason why we lost. We have to look more at how we conceded the goals as the reason we didn’t win.”
