Iraola’s First Liverpool Priority: Fixing the Defence After 53 Goals Conceded

Liverpool’s defensive record is the problem Iraola inherits

Liverpool conceded 53 goals in the Premier League last season, their worst return across a 38-game top-flight campaign. They still finished fifth and qualified for the Champions League, but their defence of a record-equalling 20th title fell well short. Those facts sit uneasily together: a team can remain dangerous enough to reach Europe’s top competition while showing that its route to winning the league has broken down. Former striker Fernando Morientes thinks Andoni Iraola’s first priority should be restoring the defensive discipline that’s underpinned Liverpool’s title-winning sides.

The scale of the problem is hard to dismiss. Arne Slot lost his job after that fifth-place finish, and Iraola now has new options in central defence: Ibrahima Konate has left for Real Madrid on a free transfer, £60 million signing Jeremy Jacquet is arriving from Rennes, and 19-year-old Giovanni Leoni is expected back after missing almost all of last season through injury. New faces may help, but they won’t automatically provide the leadership Morientes says the team needs. A defensive unit has to learn how to manage danger together, and recruitment alone can’t guarantee that understanding.

That distinction matters because defending isn’t simply a matter of adding stronger or more highly regarded players. It depends on decisions made across the side: when to press, how to cover space behind the first challenge, and whether players can keep their shape when an attack breaks down. Similar teams often find that a change in personnel takes time to translate into a more reliable collective performance. Iraola’s challenge is therefore both tactical and human: he needs to decide how his new options fit, while establishing standards that hold when matches become difficult.

Morientes, who made 16 appearances for Liverpool in the mid-2000s, says the team’s inconsistency has been visible across the season. “The Liverpool teams that have won the league have always defended very well and then had players who made the difference,” he said. His point is straightforward: Liverpool have plenty of attacking talent, but their recent defensive lapses have hurt them. Iraola needs a side that can protect a lead and let its forwards decide games.

This is more significant than it looks. A defence that can hold its shape gives attackers a platform to take risks, because one lost ball doesn’t have to become an emergency at the other end. When that security disappears, even a talented forward line can be asked to rescue matches repeatedly. Morientes’ argument isn’t that attack has stopped mattering; it’s that Liverpool’s attacking quality can’t consistently cover for a team that leaves itself exposed.

That said, the 53-goal total doesn’t explain every cause of the decline by itself. It shows the scale of the outcome, while the source doesn’t identify a single tactical flaw or player as responsible for it. Iraola will have to assess the details from within the squad and decide which problems can be addressed through organisation, selection, or changes in how the team approaches games. The margin for error is plain. The diagnosis still needs to be specific.

Morientes on Alexander-Arnold’s Madrid adjustment

Konate will reunite at Real Madrid with Trent Alexander-Arnold, who left Anfield for the Bernabeu last summer. Morientes knows both clubs well: he spent almost eight years at Madrid before joining Liverpool, and says Alexander-Arnold hasn’t yet shown his best form in Spain. His view gives the transfer a useful second angle: the move is a change in footballing environment as well as a change of club, and a player’s reputation can travel faster than his adaptation.

“He has not fully adapted yet,” Morientes said to BetBrothers, while cautioning that the wider team’s struggles have also made it harder for the defender to stand out. English players can need a second or third season to settle, he said, despite the expectations placed on them from the start. It’s too early, in Morientes’ view, to judge Alexander-Arnold’s Madrid spell by his first season alone.

That assessment is measured, but it also points to the difficulty of judging an individual in a team that’s struggling. A defender’s work can look different depending on the shape around him, the responsibilities he’s given, and the stability of the side as a whole. Morientes’ comments don’t erase the expectations attached to Alexander-Arnold’s move; they do argue for patience before treating an unsettled first season as a final verdict. Still, adaptation has to show up on the pitch eventually.

What the two stories say about the next test

The Liverpool and Madrid questions are connected by a common theme: reputation sets expectations, but performance depends on the conditions around a player. Iraola inherits a squad with new central-defensive options and a pressing need for greater consistency. Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, is being assessed in a new team whose own difficulties have affected how he’s looked. Neither situation can be reduced to a name on a team sheet.

For Liverpool, the practical test will be whether defensive organisation improves enough to make their attacking talent count more often. Can the team protect a lead, respond calmly when opponents apply pressure, and avoid turning a promising position into a frantic finish? Those are the kinds of questions that will give substance to Morientes’ call for discipline. A better result in the goals-against column would matter, but the habits behind it would tell a fuller story.

If you’re working in this space, the key distinction is between adding options and building a dependable unit. Jacquet’s arrival and Leoni’s expected return give Iraola different possibilities, while Konate’s departure changes the choices available to him. None of those developments, on its own, establishes who will lead the defence or how quickly the group will settle. The hard part comes next.

And this is the part most people overlook: a stronger defence doesn’t necessarily require a dramatic tactical overhaul. It may come from clearer roles and more consistent decisions across the team, but the source doesn’t establish which changes Iraola will make. Morientes’ case is narrower and more persuasive: Liverpool have to recover the defensive standards associated with their title-winning sides if their forwards are to have the freedom to decide games. That’s a demanding brief for a new manager, and the squad changes will only matter if they help deliver it.