Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo have both been left out of Liverpool\u2019s 25-man squad for this season\u2019s league phase of the Champions League.<\/p>\n
However, Giovanni Leoni, Conor Bradley and Hugo Ekitike have been included as they work their way back to fitness following long-term injuries.<\/p>\n
Italian forward Chiesa has missed the opening two Premier League games of the season due to a muscle injury and finds himself down the pecking order following the summer signings of wingers Bradley Barcola and Victor Munoz.<\/p>\n
Endo, who has been an unused substitute against both Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest, misses out, with James McConnell, 22, preferred among the midfielders.<\/p>\n
Fellow academy graduates Luke Chambers and Isaac Mabaya are named among 11 defenders on the list.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of Leoni, Bradley and Ekitike is welcome, with the trio all on course to be fit to play a role later in the league phase.<\/p>\n
Head coach Andoni Iraola expects Italian centre-back Leoni to resume training later this month after nearly a year out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland right-back Bradley hasn\u2019t featured since suffering a serious knee injury against Arsenal in January, while Ekitike ruptured his Achilles against Paris Saint-Germain in April. The French striker was Liverpool\u2019s 17-goal top scorer last season.<\/p>\n
Under UEFA rules, the 25 players named in List A has to include a minimum of eight \u2018locally trained\u2019 squad members. Youngsters such as Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni aren\u2019t among them as they can be named on List B given their age.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s open their Champions League campaign against Atletico Madrid at Anfield next Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s 25-man squad:<\/strong> Alisson, Mamardashvili, Woodman, Jaros; Gomez, Van Dijk, Jacquet, Kerkez, Bradley, Leoni, Tsimikas, Frimpong, Araujo, Chambers, Mabaya; Wirtz, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Munoz, Gravenberch, McConnell; Isak, Gakpo, Ekitike, Barcola.<\/p>\n \u2018Deja vu for Chiesa\u2019<\/p>\n Analysis<\/p>\n There will be a sense of deja vu for Federico Chiesa.<\/p>\n Last September he was left out of Liverpool\u2019s Champions League squad by Arne Slot. It was only after Giovanni Leoni tore his ACL a few weeks later that Chiesa was drafted in as a replacement.<\/p>\n Given the firepower available to Andoni Iraola and the need to satisfy UEFA rules regarding homegrown players, it\u2019s hardly a surprise that Chiesa hasn\u2019t made the cut again.<\/p>\n There had been an expectation that his two-year stay at Anfield would end this summer after just five starts in all competitions in 2025-26, but he didn\u2019t push for a move and Liverpool didn\u2019t receive any enticing offers.<\/p>\n Alexander Isak, Bradley Barcola, Victor Munoz, Rio Ngumoha, Cody Gakpo and Lewis Koumas are all ahead of Chiesa when it comes to securing game time in Iraola\u2019s frontline. Hugo Ekitike will also join that list when he\u2019s back fit.<\/p>\n Leaving out Japan midfielder Wataru Endo, who is expected to move on when his current deal expires next summer, is more of a gamble, but that\u2019s been influenced by the need to find room for eight \u2018locally trained\u2019 squad members.<\/p>\n With Florian Wirtz earmarked for the No 10 role, Iraola will be confident he still has plenty of options to fill the two midfield spots behind the Germany international. As well as Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, he has youngsters James McConnell and Trey Nyoni at his disposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo have both been left out of Liverpool\u2019s 25-man squad for this season\u2019s league…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1041632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[24937,215,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1041631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-champions-league","tag-liverpool","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117209440302919222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}