Andoni Iraola praised Alexis Mac Allister and Ronald Araujo while taking responsibility for Liverpool falling behind in their 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid.
The Reds trailed to an early Marcos Llorente goal before Araujo set up Dominik Szoboszlai to level shortly before half-time. Mac Allister then scored a stunning winner to secure Iraola’s first home victory as Liverpool head coach.
After the game, Iraola admitted he was caught out by Atletico’s switch to a five-man defence but praised his players for fighting back to secure the win.
“I think today I have to blame myself a little bit for the start of the game,” he said. “I think Atlético used a structure that they haven’t used before this season, and it has cost us a little bit to match up properly.
“I think until we conceded the goal, we’ve had a couple of minutes where we’ve adjusted things and we matched up much better, and it was the moment where we’ve started playing better.
“Obviously, after half-time you have more time, everything was better set, and second half I think we were the best team.
“I think the team, the players, have shown big character, big character. And also the crowd has helped us massively in the second half.”
Andoni Iraola continued: “I’m happy today because we’ve faced a very tough situation starting the game, conceding the first goal, not having the plan very clear in terms of they’ve changed some things.
“So I think we’ve corrected quite well live, and this experience will help us for the next times. You know, we don’t have like three years of experience where you can say: ‘You remember this one, we do pum-pum, and then you correct things’.
“No, here now you have to talk with a lot of players, you have to correct, and to get results and to go from behind and win the game.
“I think in four games, three times that we’ve come back somehow, I think it shows that players are pushing, are showing character, and now it’s a matter, no, of getting everything like cleaner and sharper.”
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