Liverpool aren't anywhere near their best right now - and they're still playing well. Andoni Iraola can guarantee the bonus of an elite talent.
Andoni Iraola oversaw a very good win for Liverpool on Wednesday evening. We won't go as far as calling it spectacular or anything, but this was an impressive showing against Chelsea.
The impressive part is that Iraola didn't put out his strongest XI. He actually rotated quite heavily, with Alexis Mac Allister, Jeremy Jacquet, Bradley Barcola, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz all on the bench.
All five would usually start, of course.
Instead, we saw Cody Gakpo as a striker and flanked by Rio Ngumoha and Lewis Koumas. James McConnell played behind him. It was far from the full-strength front-four and Iraola still beat Chelsea on penalties.
The thing is, though, that Liverpool will get a lot stronger than this. That's all confirmed. A transformative talent will join the squad soon enough.
Hugo Ekitiké's big return
Iraola has thus far worked without Hugo Ekitiké as a part of his squad. That is an enormous handicap as the Frenchman was the Reds' top scorer last season and many would label him the club's best striker when fully fit.
That was the...