Anfield Agony: Liverpool Squander 2-0 Lead, Monaco Win 3-2

Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz put Liverpool up, looking comfortable by half-time. Reds in control for the first 45. Easy street, right? Not for long. Monaco tore back after the break. Aleksandr Golovin's penalty. Mika Biereth's rebound. Level. Then Paris Brunner dropped the late hammer with a header. Game over. 3-2 to Monaco.

Painfully familiar, this pattern. Just last week, Liverpool managed to blow another 2-0 advantage against Leeds. That one finished 4-2. In Chicago, no less. Not a good look.

Iraola, to his credit, shuffled the deck. Made 11 changes at half-time. Getting minutes into legs. Fair enough. Victor Munoz, a fresh face, got his Liverpool debut. Anfield gave him a proper roar. Virgil van Dijk and Alisson were among the starters, eased back in after their World Cup jaunts.

The gaffer, according to Sky Sports, later pointed to fitness. The usual excuse. "We don't have much more in terms of the level required," he apparently said. "They probably don't have the energy for 90 minutes. They started to get tired and that will take time." Translation: they ran out of gas. This isn't groundbreaking insight, mate.

He did confirm Jeremy Jacquet and Curtis Jones—who apparently had 'minor hip discomfort'—should be good for the next friendly. That's against Como next Sunday. Small mercies, I suppose.