Liverpool draw blank as Iraola’s players struggle to click
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LIVERPOOL, England, Sept 12 : Andoni Iraola remains unbeaten as Liverpool’s new coach but a drab 0-0 home draw with Fulham on Saturday continued an underwhelming start to the Premier League season for a side who had been expected to be among the challengers for the title.
Apart from Victor Munoz hitting the crossbar with a header, Liverpool struggled to dominate a Fulham side who had conceded seven goals in their opening three games, all defeats.
Despite the boost of a Champions League win over Atletico Madrid in midweek, Liverpool have now drawn three of their four Premier League games under Iraola and the players are yet to click.
“Today we lacked a lot of freshness,” said Iraola, who replaced Arne Slot at Anfield in the summer.
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“We improved slightly in the second half after we started the first half slow but overall we lacked energy.”
Iraola made three changes to the starting line-up from the win over Atletico, with Munoz, Ryan Gravenberch and Kostas Tsimikas all coming in. While the Spaniard said the quick turnaround from Wednesday evening was not ideal, goalkeeper Alisson said that was no excuse for a ‘poor’ performance.
“Collectively, we didn’t play well. Many things we tried to do, we couldn’t do it well,” the Brazilian said.
“Obviously, it’s a big challenge to play Wednesday night and Saturday evening, and you have another game Tuesday. But we need to get the right mentality to do that and I think it wasn’t the case today. We have to improve for the next one.”
For Fulham manager Alvaro Arbeloa a point away at the club he played for with distinction was a welcome boost after finding himself in the spotlight.
“We worked so hard this week, and I’m so happy, not just for the point but for how my players played here,” he said.
“And I think this (result) is going to be important for us to believe in our idea. Of course, we need to keep improving.”
Source: Reuters
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