Andoni Iraola reacts to Bradley Barcola’s first Premier League start for Liverpool vs Fulham
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Bradley Barcola shook off the after-effects of a cramp sustained against Atletico Madrid in midweek to record his first Premier League start for Liverpool on Saturday.The Reds limped to a frustrating 0-0 draw at Anfield, with Andoni Iraola still left waiting for his first three home points in the Premier League.Barcola had a quiet game overall, starting from the left of Liverpool‘s attack, but when asked about the Frenchman during his post-match press conference, Iraola insisted that building the winger up physically and in terms of confidence was still the main thing. Do you think Andoni Iraola picked the wrong team against Fulham?
What would you have done differently? Liverpool face Fulham at Anfield Iraola happy with Barcola performanceLiverpool fans will have been excited to see Barcola on the teamsheet after the doubts over whether he would play at all, but in truth there was not a lot to justify that anticipation against Fulham.Nevertheless, Iraola appears to have been happy with his new No.
29, pointing to one moment where Barcola ghosted in at the back-post to get on the end of a Dominik Szoboszlai cross, only to be denied by a good block.“With Bradley now we are building his physical condition, because he hasn’t had any minutes in pre-season,” said the Liverpool head coach.“I think there is a good part today that he played a little more than three days ago, he had a good chance back-post arriving well but they blocked the shot. Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty ImagesREAD MORE: Alisson explains the disappointing reason Liverpool looked so tired in Saturday’s 0-0 with Fulham“We know he has more, but now it’s about giving him the minutes, keep building his confidence also and he’s a player who is going to give us a lot.”Asked about his decision to play Barcola on the left instead of the right – where he started from against Atletico – Iraola again reinforced that he expects all of his wingers to be able to play both positions.“I think I said it a lot of times, we have four wingers who probably before the season people would say they are more left wingers than right wingers because they played more there,” he said.“I think all the wingers will play on the right and on the left.