Iraola's Liverpool Champions League Squad Excludes Chiesa and Endo
Andoni Iraola has not wasted time announcing how his Liverpool will look. Or who will be left behind.
In his first Champions League squad as Reds manager, the Spaniard has made two high-profile casualties: Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo. Both are out of the 25-man List A for the 2026-27 campaign. Both will be watching from home when Atletico Madrid arrive at Anfield on 9 September.
For two established internationals, it is a brutal reality check.
Iraola draws a hard line
The decision is framed by UEFA’s tight registration rules. Only 17 non-locally trained players are allowed on List A, and Iraola has treated those slots as non-negotiable assets.
Bradley Barcola, the £123 million headline signing, is in. So is fellow summer recruit Victor Munoz. Even Hugo Ekitike, currently sidelined with injury, has been registered.
Chiesa and Endo have not.
That choice tells its own story. Iraola is planning for a European campaign built around his new core, even if some of that core is not yet fit to play. The message to those on the fringes is unmistakable: if you are not central to the project, you are expendable.
Carragher’s blunt verdict
Jamie Carragher did not sugar-coat it when speaking on The Overlap. The former Liverpool defender sees the omissions as a clear indication of where Chiesa and Endo now stand.
"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."
On Endo in particular, Carragher’s assessment cut deep.
"Endo should have been moved on," he added. "He has done great, a bit of a cult hero."
Cult status, though, does not win you a Champions League place. Not under a new manager intent on reshaping the squad in his own image.
Endo and Chiesa pushed to the margins
Both players remain under long contracts – Endo until 2027, Chiesa until 2028 – but security on paper has not translated into security on the pitch.
Endo’s role already shrank dramatically last season. The Japanese midfielder, once seen as a shrewd, stabilising presence, was reduced to just eight Premier League appearances and a single Champions League outing. Those numbers rarely rebound when a new coach arrives with fresh signings in his position.
Chiesa’s story at Anfield has been one of stop-start frustration. The 28-year-old’s time has been shredded by fitness issues, and he is again nursing a muscle problem. This latest injury is not considered long term, yet that almost makes his omission more striking.
Iraola has chosen to register long-term absentees such as Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni ahead of a player nearing a return to fitness. That is not a medical decision. It is a football one. It underlines how far Chiesa has slipped from the inner circle.
Europe moves on without them
Liverpool’s immediate focus is domestic. Ipswich Town visit Anfield on Friday in the league, a fixture that will give Iraola another chance to bed in his ideas before the European lights are switched on.
Then comes the real test. Atletico Madrid in a revamped league phase, with daunting trips to Inter and Fenerbahce to follow. Iraola has nailed his colours to the mast for that run. He wants pace, pressing, and a squad trimmed to those he trusts most in high-intensity football.
For Chiesa and Endo, the horizon looks very different. Their season, at least in Europe, is on pause. Realistically, their opportunities now sit in domestic cup competitions and whatever league minutes fall their way in rotation.
Only an injury crisis of serious proportions would open the door to a permitted squad alteration later in the Champions League campaign. That is the harsh truth of their situation.
Iraola has drawn a clear line between the players he sees as part of Liverpool’s European future and those left looking in. The question now is whether Chiesa and Endo can force their way back across it – or whether this is the beginning of the end of their Anfield story.
