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'Frustrated' Andoni Iraola singled out three Liverpool players who he claimed were responsible for Fenerbahce's winning goal in their first Champions League loss of the season. Iraola's outfit fell 3-2 in Istanbul, having been ahead on two occasions. Trey Nyoni's opener was cancelled out by Mason Greenwood before substitute Alexander Isak reclaimed Liverpool's lead after half-time. However, strikes from Archie Brown and Vedat Muriqi put Fenerbahce ahead, and the Reds found no answer.
It was Muriqi's header that especially infuriated Iraola, whose side surrendered all three goals from set-piece situations. The Liverpool boss lamented afterwards: "It's [a feeling of] frustration, because it's a difficult place to come here and to play and we were for the most part of the game thinking, 'okay, we can win this one.' But obviously it hasn't happened.
"We have conceded, especially the first goal and the third goal - the second one is a rebound - but the wall, I don't think we set it properly and the last one Muriqi jumps and wins the ball against three of our defenders, it's something that definitely we have to defend better."
Those three individuals were Nyoni, Jeremy Jacquet and Alexis Mac Allister. Muriqi overpowered them to head Brown's lofted cross past into the bottom-left corner.
Iraola made five changes to his starting line-up following Sunday's 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal, hoping fresher legs would make the difference. Yet the Reds will now head into their trip to Crystal Palace on the back of consecutive losses.
Justifying his team selection, Iraola said: "We've done this not just today. We've been doing it all season and all the games we've played midweek.
"I think we've been changing at least four, five, six, seven players. Because of the schedule that we have, it's impossible to maintain with always the [same] starting XI.
"I think we have been dealing well with these rotations. I trust the squad to sustain the level. I don't think it was the main reason why we lost, I think some of the players that didn't play on the weekend have played a good game.
"We have to look more at how we conceded the goals [and] the reason why we didn't win because after I think we had good moments, especially on the ball where we could score our two goals."
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