It's happening: Andoni Iraola to be given elite star who transforms Liverpool

It's happening: Andoni Iraola to be given elite star who transforms Liverpool Liverpool aren't anywhere near their best right now - and they're still playing well. Andoni Iraola can guarantee the bonus of an elite talent. Andoni Iraola oversaw a very good win for Liverpool on Wednesday evening. We won't go as far as calling it spectacular or anything, but this was an impressive showing against Chelsea. The impressive part is that Iraola didn't put out his strongest XI. He actually rotated quite heavily, with Alexis Mac Allister, Jeremy Jacquet, Bradley Barcola, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz all on the bench. All five would usually start, of course. Instead, we saw Cody Gakpo as a striker and flanked by Rio Ngumoha and Lewis Koumas. James McConnell played behind him. It was far from the full-strength front-four and Iraola still beat Chelsea on penalties. The thing is, though, that Liverpool will get a lot stronger than this. That's all confirmed. A transformative talent will join the squad soon enough. Hugo Ekitiké's big return Iraola has thus far worked without Hugo Ekitiké as a part of his squad. That is an enormous handicap as the Frenchman was the Reds' top scorer last season and many would label him the club's best striker when fully fit. That was the point of buying both him and Isak. Liverpool would have two strikers who can very easily be swapped out for one another and who both carry elite quality. So in matches like on Wednesday, the Reds should have Ekitike or Isak up top. It's a dramatic shift in quality and something that we hope comes into play at the backend of the campaign here when the matches are make-or-break in major competitions. That will depend on when Ekitiké recovers from his injury, of course. But the impressive thing is that Iraola is already finding success even without this elite-level rotation. He's finding ways to win just using academy graduates who lack anything like the experience Ekitiké boasts. So if the boss can find wins like Wednesday's without players like Ekitiké, what's he going to do once the Frenchman is back? Liverpool should look like an incredibly powerful unit.