Andoni Iraola's Liverpool are going under the radar so far this season - Paul Gorst examines why

Every week, the Premier League presents its latest club in crisis to the media and the goal is to never become it.

This week it is, with a depressing inievtiablity for their supporters, Manchester United, who find that they are now at the players-turning-on-managers stage of their annual cycle of doom.

Fresh from a 4-1 thumping at the hands of Champions League newcomers Como on Wednesday night, Bruno Fernandes is now openly questioning Michael Carrick's approach. Carrick's response is to publicly hint the midfielder - and the rest of his team-mates - simply aren't putting in the hard yards to carry out that tactical masterplan.

That in-house tiff comes a week after Lisandro Martinez set the news agenda ablaze with his less-than-veiled criticism of the sporting operation at Old Trafford, when he bemoaned that those in the director positions, such as Jason Wilcox, did not reinforce the squad with enough quality during the transfer window.

Carrick's job almost looks untenable at this point and only a remarkable turnaround from here will keep the former Middlesbrough boss in charge at Old Trafford now.

Once more, the perpetual psychodrama will keep the podcasters, the rolling news channels and newspaper columns knee deep in content and coverage.

United, quite admirably for those of a Liverpool persuasion, have become an entire one-club industry in this regard over much of the past decade. 'This is Manchester United we're (always) talking about', after all.

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At Arsenal, Mikel Arteta was found having to defend the decision to cut 60 jobs at the club in that very Lindekin, High Performance Podcast way of his, insisting that making so many ordinary people redundant was actually a way of streamlining to success on the pitch.

“We have to make decisions to place people in the right positions and continue to invest in order to achieve our objectives and build the success we want," Arteta said.

That the cull came just days after his own lucrative contract extension was penned likely only made the syrupy claptrap more nauseating for those who are now on the lookout for work.

"It was explained to me about the exercise, and the analysis that has been done across the club, and with the intention always to evolve to improve."

That is perhaps how one looks at things when they are now the highest-earning manager in a league that enjoys almost impossible wealth.

At Manchester City? Well, the dumpster fire that is the guilty verdict of their 114 Premier League charges continues to spread its toxic fumes across the entire sport.

Even if there is an understandable element of fatigue around the constant discourse, the fact that City are appealing the findings of an independent commission that found them guilty over a nine-year period of cheating should never be allowed to fade quietly into the background.

A resolution for the entire game cannot come soon enough, but oh look, some giant inflatable bananas...

Over at Liverpool? Well, Andoni Iraola appears to be going about his business as under the radar as is possible when you are the head coach at Anfield.

Perhaps that is what the decision-makers sought when they decided to offer him a two-year deal back in June? A safe pair of hands to steady a ship that had been going through choppy waters for most of the last 12 months.

Iraola now has seven wins in nine and has lost just once this season, in uniquely surreal circumstances against City earlier this month, when Ryan Gravenberch was controversially sent off and the whole sporting world wondered aloud if the fixture even meant anything due to the visitors' aforementioned scandal.

Aside from a couple of disappointing draws, Iraola appears to have Liverpool moving in the right direction and it's been a good few days for a club who welcome high-flying Brighton to Anfield on Sunday on the back of three straight wins and 12 goals scored.

Florian Wirtz has enjoyed an excellent week, Bradley Barcola is scoring and assisting and Isak, with five goals in six league appearances, is showing at least some of why he cost a British-record £125m from Newcastle United 13 months ago.

Of course, not all is rosy in the Anfield garden. Iraola has a midfield department lacking depth. Right-back remains an issue with centre-half Ronald Araujo 'doing a job' there and Lewis Koumas, while undoubtedly a likeable, hard-working sort, is perhaps ultimately not up to the task of filling in Isak for any real length of time up top.

There is also the wider question of why the Liverpool squad looks as generally threadbare as it does having spent a mind-boggling fee of somewhere near £660m since the summer of 2025.

Undoubtedly, though, there are green shoots of positivity to assess 11 games into Iraola's tenure. Three straight Champions League victories has the team well on course for qualification to the knockout stages and they host Chelsea next week for a place in the fifth round of the Carabao Cup.

Defensively, Liverpool have tightened up in the Premier League too. They have shipped just one goal with 11 men on the pitch since August and three of the eight conceded came in that final third at home to City, after Gravenberch had been given his marching orders.

A mine through the data shows that Liverpool have conceded the third-lowest xG in the division this term (8.3) and they find themselves fourth for the fewest big chances (15) given up.

With centre-half Araujo operating on the right and new signing Jeremy Jacquet forging an impressive early partnership with club captain Virgil van Dijk, Iraola has developed a miserly quality to his team that few predicted when he arrived with a reputation as a coach of high-pressing and hard-running.

The fact they sit fifth right now, in the same position they finished last season's deeply troubled term, is maybe obstructing the view for those on the outside but Iraola certainly has Liverpool moving slowly in the direction they want to travel.

Victory over Brighton this weekend, a side who have looked as good as anyone bar City this term, will further reinforce the idea that Liverpool are steadily improving.

There is seemingly no imminent danger of becoming the Premier League's crisis club. Not this week, at least.