On Thursday night, ahead of UEFA's deadline, Liverpool submitted their Champions League squad for the league phase, which commences in just a few days time. Most of the time, for most clubs, these squad submissions are merely an administrative process that are not particularly noteworthy.
However, the 25 man squad selected by Andoni Iraola produced numerous talking points, so let's go through them.
Liverpool's UEFA Champions League squad (league phase)
- Goalkeepers: Alisson, Giorgi Mamardashvili, Freddie Woodman & Vítězslav Jaroš.
- Defenders: Conor Bradley, Jeremie Frimpong, Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, Jérémy Jacquet, Ronald Araújo, Giovanni Leoni, Miloš Kerkez, Kostas Tsimikas, Luke Chambers & Isaac Mabaya.
- Midfielders: Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, James McConnell & Florian Wirtz.
- Forwards: Víctor Muñoz, Bradley Barcola, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitiké & Alexander Isak.
Worth noting that Trey Nyoni, Rio Ngumoha and other youngsters are still eligible to feature. They are included on List B, which essentially means they don't need to take up one of the 25 spots on the main roster due to their age. UEFA do require clubs to include eight "locally trained" players in their 25 man squad, hence why you're seeing the names Luke Chambers and Isaac Mabaya to bump up the numbers.
This has meant there is no room for Wataru Endō nor Federico Chiesa. Both remained Liverpool players, despite being linked with moves away during the summer. Well, this has happened again to Chiesa. Exactly a year ago, the forward was initially left out of Arne Slot's Champions League squad, albeit was added soon after when his compatriot Giovanni Leoni suffered a season-ending injury.
The omissions of Chiesa and Endō though is even more noteworthy when you considered that they have been excluded so that players with long-term injuries are on the list. Speaking during a press conference on Thursday, ahead of the Premier League clash with Ipswich Town, Iraola stated that Joe Gomez will return to full training next week, while Leoni will do so later this month.
However, as expected, Conor Bradley and Hugo Ekitiké are not particularly close to a return, according to Iraola himself, so why are their names on this squad list? Well, this 25-man roster is for the UEFA Champions League league phase, which begins for Liverpool against Atlético Madrid on 9 September, and concludes when Lens visit Merseyside on 27 January.
Ahead of the knockout stages, teams can make three changes to their squads. This has been problematic for many clubs in the past, including Chelsea in 2022/23, who signed seven players during that January transfer window, but were only able to add three of them.
So, if Bradley and Ekitiké are only going to be available from February onwards, including them in the squad now is futile, because they can just be added at a later date. This is unless, Iraola is planning on making multiple January signings, then he does not want to run the risk of that deadlock situation.
The other possible interpretation is that the pair will be back before the January meetings with Inter at San Siro and Lens at Anfield. In Bradley's case, this isn't too surprising. The Northern Irishman suffered a serious knee injury against Arsenal last January, so the hope was always that he could return before Christmas.
Ekitiké, on the other hand, picked up an even more gruesome knee injury against Paris Saint-Germain as recently as April. The prognosis was that the Frenchman would need around a year to recover, making it optimistic to suggest he'll be in action by January. Nevertheless, Iraola and the Liverpool medical department know more than we do, so perhaps this squad list suggests we could be seeing Ekitiké back in action sooner than anticipated.
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