Two First-Team Names Missing As Liverpool Confirm Champions League Squad
Andoni Iraola has shown he is willing to make unsentimental calls early in his time at Anfield. Liverpool have submitted their List A squad for the 2026/27 Champions League league phase, and two senior professionals, Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo, are not part of it. Barring a mid season resubmission, that rules both out of European involvement for the opening block of fixtures.
A statement call on Chiesa
Of the two omissions, Chiesa’s will generate more debate around Merseyside. The Italian chose to stay and fight for his place again this summer rather than push for an exit, hoping a settled pre season would finally give him a consistent run in Iraola’s side. Instead he has yet to feature in the Premier League this term because of a knock, and now finds himself without a route into the club’s biggest European nights either. It is a tough marker to be handed just weeks into a new manager’s reign, and it says plenty about where Iraola currently rates him in the pecking order.
Endo left out for different reasons
Endo’s exclusion reads differently. The midfielder is working his way back from injury, with both him and Conor Bradley pencilled in to return before the turn of the year. Leaving an unavailable player out of a squad list is straightforward business rather than a value judgement, and it points to a wider theme in how this squad has been constructed: fitness and reliability right now matter more than reputation or seniority.
Ngumoha and Nyoni protected, not punished
Elsewhere the list holds few surprises. Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni do not appear on List A, but that is a technicality rather than a snub, since both are eligible for List B under UEFA’s homegrown provisions and can still be registered and involved that way. It is the kind of squad management most well run clubs quietly get right every August, and Liverpool’s recruitment and football operations staff deserve credit for not overcomplicating it.
The 25 names who do appear tell their own story. Alisson, Giorgi Mamardashvili and Freddie Woodman cover the goalkeeping positions, while the back line options include Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, Rayan Jacquet, Milos Kerkez, Bradley, Giovanni Leoni and Kostas Tsimikas. Further forward Iraola can call on Jeremie Frimpong, Marcos Araujo, Trent Chambers, Ronald Mabaya, Florian Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ricardo Munoz, Ryan Gravenberch, James McConnell, Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike and Bradley Barcola.
No easy start in Europe
There is no gentle introduction to the new league phase format either. Atletico Madrid visit Anfield first, before a trip to LASK in October. Villarreal and Fenerbahce follow, with Club Brugge and Porto rounding out the calendar year, ahead of games against Inter Milan and RC Lens once 2027 begins. Whatever reservations supporters have about leaving out two recognisable names, Iraola is betting that trusting his in form group now will matter more than carrying senior players back to fitness in the middle of a demanding run of fixtures. It is a call that will be picked apart if results dip, but it is a coherent one, and coherence is exactly what Liverpool have been short of in squad planning in recent seasons.