Andoni Iraola insists he retains “100 per cent trust” in Liverpool duo Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola despite recent criticism of their performances.
Wirtz has come under increasing scrutiny after providing just one assist this season following his £116million move from Bayer Leverkusen last summer.
Barcola, meanwhile, is yet to register a goal contribution since joining from Paris Saint-Germain in a £123million deal in August.
Both big-money signings struggled in Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.
With Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai still sidelined for Wednesday’s Champions League clash away to Austrian champions LASK, Liverpool need Wirtz and Barcola to step up.
“It’s true that Alex, Cody and Dom are top for us in terms of goals and assists so far this season,” Iraola told reporters at a press conference at Raiffeisen Arena.
“Now we don’t have them, we need others to give us those numbers. With Bradley and Flo, they have had good games and bad games, like everyone else, but we know their level. They are players that I trust 100 per cent.
“The other day, Flo probably didn’t have his best game. Everyone starts looking for answers. But he had some good performances in the national team (during the recent international break) and scored. I’d like to look at it more collectively.
“If (Lewis) Koumas had scored (against Man City) when he connected really well, then it’s one assist for Barcola.
“His performance would have been exactly the same but we’d all say: ‘Oof, he played really well with an assist and produced’.
“Sometimes we are too focused on the numbers. With Bradley, I was happy with a lot of things. Bradley was the last one to arrive (in the transfer window). The more he plays, the more he will gets the connections with people around him.”
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