Liverpool winger Bradley Barcola has aimed a sly dig at manager Andoni Iraola as he suggested the Reds aren’t controlling games enough.
Reflecting on the 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal at the weekend, Barcola said he felt Liverpool could have done better and kept resorting to long balls too easily.
The France international has not been at his best since joining Liverpool from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, and he’ll surely be looking to improve his own individual performances.
Still, he also suggested Liverpool need to do better as a whole with their tactical approach to games.
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Bradley Barcola on Liverpool’s decision-making against Arsenal
Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports, Barcola discussed a range of topics, including his own adaptation to life at Liverpool and the pressure of replacing the legendary Mohamed Salah.
Still, arguably his most interesting point was regarding tactics, which could surely be taken as a bit of a dig at Iraola.
“I think we should have done better in a game like this. We had the chances to score, even to win the match,” Barcola said about the Arsenal game.
“I think we need to work on being able to control the game more and play more football. Often, when we’re in a game like this, we resort to long balls. But in my opinion, we should try to keep the ball on the ground more, because we have players with the quality to do that.
“We were really disappointed after the game but we know what we have to do better at. We’re not going to give up. We know that other teams will drop points. So it’s down to us to remain consistent until the end of the season.”
LFC have some potentially tricky fixtures coming up next as they take on Fenerbahce away in the Champions League tonight, and then Crystal Palace away in the Premier League on Sunday.
i agree. Andoni Iraola must understand that we are not Bournemouth… we cannot play underdog football. i mean. he is spanish. he should know better!
Given Arsenal scored due to us playing out and losing possession that’s an ironic opinion from Bradley. When teams have five players around our box looking to press agressively it’s madness to try to play through them.