Andoni Iraola was fuming at officials after Liverpool draw – but not over the penalty incident

Andoni Iraola had a grievance to bring up about the officials after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest this afternoon – but it wasn’t for the reason that you might immediately think.

The Basque’s first Premier League home game as the Reds’ head coach ended with a frustrating share of the spoils in which – just like they did at Newcastle last weekend – his team twice had to come from behind in order to avoid defeat.

The visitors’ second goal came from a penalty which was awarded after Alisson Becker was adjudged to have fouled Neco Williams, a decision that Clinton Morrison felt was ‘harsh’ on the goalkeeper.

However, Iraola’s annoyance after the match wasn’t over that incident, but rather the length of time it took for a Liverpool triple substitution to take effect in the 71st minute (just after Morgan Gibbs-White had scored from the spot).

Iraola annoyed over substitution delay

Ryan Gravenberch, Rio Ngumoha and Kostas Tsimikas had been waiting on the touchline to be introduced to the game well before Alisson’s foul on Williams, which came after Forest took a quick throw-in.

The Reds boss told TNT Sports: “You analyse the penalty, but a professional official cannot take three minutes to [make] the subs. Two or three minutes beforehand, I was already angry because the play was stopped and we couldn’t make it.

“Before the throw-in I thought, ‘OK, we’ll do it now’, but I don’t know. It was hard to explain it but it has taken ages to prepare two boards.”

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Iraola’s rage is justified, but Liverpool must do better

Iraola has every right to feel irked by the delay to the triple substitution, which should’ve taken effect at 1-1 but was instead delayed until after Forest had retaken the lead.

Fourth official Tim Robinson may have had three changes in personnel to process, both in terms of the requisite paperwork and displaying the relevant shirt numbers on the handheld LED board, but the whole process just seemed way more convoluted than it had to be.

It certainly didn’t improve the Liverpool head coach’s mood after a disappointing afternoon in which his team were accused by Stephen Warnock of defending like an ‘under-10s’ team and had a first-half goal for Florian Wirtz ruled out for offside against Jeremie Frimpong.

While certain moments didn’t go the Reds’ way today, the cold hard truth is that we only have two points from a possible six to begin the season, and that was in matches against opposition who didn’t finish inside the top 10 in 2025/26.

Richard Hughes has three more days to ensure that Iraola has a strong enough squad to compete in four different tournaments over the next few months, and the team on the pitch has plenty to improve upon ahead of the visit to Ipswich Town on Friday night.