Speaking ahead of his team’s encounter against LASK in the UEFA Champions League this Wednesday evening, Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola has said that he “100 per cent confidence” in Bradley Barcola (24) despite what has been described as a difficult debut to life in England.
Although he has started four of the six matches he has played for the Reds so far, the French winger has still not managed to make a decisive impact, either through a goal or an assist. However, this does not seem to be causing Iraola unduly great concern at the moment, as he points to Barcola’s performance against Manchester City (0-3) last weekend to back up his point.
“The other day, if Lewis Koumas had scored, it would have been an assist for Bradley Barcola. He’s a good player, he plays well, he creates a lot. Sometimes we focus too much on these statistics,” explained the Spanish manager. “His performance would have been exactly the same, but we’d all be saying, ‘Oh, he played very well with an assist’. I was pleased with a lot of things the other day with Bradley. We created some good chances, but we didn’t finish them off.”
“Bradley is the latest arrival,” Iraola concluded, referring to his player, who joined Liverpool from Paris Saint-Germain at the very end of the transfer window for a fee of €125m. “The more he plays, the better he’ll connect with those around him, and the better he’ll become.”