Iraola's Bold Choices: Chiesa and Endo Excluded from Liverpool's Champions League Squad
Andoni Iraola has wasted no time showing whose Liverpool this is.
Before a ball has even been kicked in the Champions League, the new manager has delivered a brutal verdict on two established internationals. Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo have both been left out of Liverpool’s 25-man squad for the 2026-27 campaign, a decision that cuts through sentiment and reputation in one stroke.
The squad list, submitted ahead of Liverpool’s opener against Atletico Madrid on September 9, tells its own story. Chiesa and Endo will be watching Europe from the stands.
Numbers, rules – and a clear hierarchy
UEFA’s regulations give managers some cover. Only 17 non-locally trained players can be registered on List A. Every big club feels that squeeze. The choices inside those limits, though, reveal a manager’s priorities.
Iraola chose to use those precious slots on £123 million signing Bradley Barcola, fellow summer arrival Victor Munoz, and even injured forward Hugo Ekitike. That last decision, in particular, underlines just how far down the pecking order Chiesa and Endo have fallen. Ekitike cannot help Liverpool now, yet he has been deemed more important to the European project than two fit – or nearly fit – senior professionals.
There is no hiding place in that equation.
Carragher’s blunt verdict
Jamie Carragher did not dress it up. Speaking on The Overlap, the former Liverpool defender cut straight to the point about the pair’s status under Iraola.
“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.”
The Sky Sports pundit then zeroed in on Endo’s situation, questioning why the club kept him at all.
“Endo should have been moved on,” he added. “He has done great, a bit of a cult hero.”
That last line stings. A nod to what Endo has given, quickly followed by the cold reality that sentiment does not win you a Champions League place.
Endo’s role shrinks to the margins
The numbers back up the sense of a slow fade. Endo’s influence had already begun to ebb away last season. The Japan international managed just eight Premier League appearances and only a single outing in the Champions League.
For a player once valued for his reliability and maturity, that kind of reduction in minutes is not a blip. It is a trend. Iraola’s first European squad has simply formalised what the pitch time already suggested: Endo is now a fringe option.
He remains under contract until 2027, but contracts do not guarantee involvement. They only guarantee wages. On this evidence, his meaningful future at Anfield lies elsewhere or, for now, in the domestic cups.
Chiesa’s Liverpool dream stuck in the treatment room
Chiesa’s story has been different, but just as unforgiving. The Italian arrived with high expectations and the pedigree to match, yet his Liverpool career has been repeatedly stalled by fitness problems.
At 28, this was supposed to be his prime. Instead, he is again nursing a muscle injury and remains on the edge of the squad. The current issue is not considered long term, which might have given him a case for inclusion. It did not sway Iraola.
The manager chose to register long-term absentees such as Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni ahead of a nearing-fitness Chiesa. That is a striking call. It signals that, even when available, Chiesa is no longer central to the club’s European thinking.
For a forward of his quality and profile, that is a stark demotion.
Domestic cups or bust
Liverpool’s schedule offers no time for sentiment either. Ipswich Town visit Anfield on Friday in the league, a domestic assignment that arrives just before the glare of European lights returns. Atletico Madrid then come to Merseyside to begin a daunting league phase that also includes trips to Inter and Fenerbahce.
Those are nights when Liverpool’s new era will be judged. They are also nights Chiesa and Endo will almost certainly watch from afar.
Barring a serious injury crisis that forces a permitted alteration to the Champions League squad later in the campaign, their European ambitions are parked. For now, their opportunities look confined to domestic cup competitions, the places where managers test depth and rotate rather than build their core.
For two players under contract until 2027 and 2028 respectively, that is a sobering reality. Iraola has drawn a hard line at the start of his Liverpool reign. The question now is whether Chiesa and Endo can find a way back across it – or whether this is the beginning of the end for their Anfield stories.
