On a grey afternoon at Anfield, Liverpool’s new chapter under Andoni Iraola met its first sharp reversal. Manchester City left Merseyside with a 3-0 win, ending both Iraola’s unbeaten start as Liverpool coach in the Premier League and a longer sequence of 23 league matches without defeat stretching back through his time at Bournemouth.
The scoreline was unforgiving, but Iraola saw a match divided in two by Ryan Gravenberch’s dismissal shortly after the hour. Liverpool, he felt, had been the stronger side before that turning point; City took command once the hosts were reduced to 10 men.
“There were effectively two games,” Iraola said afterwards. “We were the better team until the 60th minute, and they were the better team after the red card.”
A match changed in an instant
Iraola disputed the first yellow card shown to Gravenberch, arguing that Anderson had moved beyond the Liverpool midfielder and that a foul was not even likely. With what he described as nine Liverpool players already behind the ball, he struggled to understand the booking that led to the sending-off.
Facing City is demanding with a full complement, Iraola said, but the contest altered completely with a man missing. Liverpool conceded soon afterwards, before the coach was able to make a substitution, and the visitors pressed home their advantage.
Yet the Spaniard reserved considerable praise for Gravenberch and for the wider effort of his side. He said the midfielder had carried the ball well and contributed strongly in defence, while Liverpool had competed with the required intensity and fought for their individual battles.
“I am very proud of the players,” Iraola said. “It was not an easy situation, but they gave everything.” He added that defeats of this kind can still offer valuable lessons, even if Liverpool came away with nothing to show for their work.
The Liverpool support also drew warm words from their manager. Iraola described the Anfield crowd as exceptional from the moment he arrived at the club, and noted that the supporters continued to recognise the players’ exertions after the red card had reshaped the contest.
There is little time for reflection. Liverpool travel to Austria in two days, although Iraola expects it to be difficult for the squad’s injured players to recover in time. Their problems, he said, are not serious, but the continental journey arrives too quickly after a bruising first league defeat of his Liverpool tenure.
