Iraola says he'll have 'quiet word' with Isak after Anfield loss

Arsenal left Anfield with the points on 1 November 2026, denting Liverpool's season just as Arne Slot's side sit fifth in the Premier League table with 12 points from seven games. That is a middling return for a club carrying an academy spine of seven homegrown players and a squad valued north of €980m, and a result like this against a title rival does not get filed away quietly.

Football365 reports that Andoni Iraola, whose Bournemouth side have no direct stake in this fixture, used his own post-match platform to say he would be having a 'quiet word' with Alexander Isak over an error made during the Arsenal game. Iraola worked with Isak at Real Sociedad before the striker's move to the Premier League, which explains why a rival manager felt comfortable calling him out by name rather than leaving it to Slot's dressing room.

Van Dijk's VAR complaint

Virgil van Dijk, never shy of saying his piece after a result he didn't like, criticised how VAR was used during the defeat, per the same Football365 report. The exact decision he was unhappy about wasn't detailed, but a senior Liverpool voice questioning officiating after a home loss to a direct rival is the kind of thing that tends to dominate the news cycle more than the performance itself.

Isak's mixed afternoon

Alexander Isak, the player Iraola singled out, has had a stop-start introduction to Anfield life. Premier League figures have him at 694 minutes and three goals this season with an xG of 2.59, numbers that show the chances have been there without always converting into the kind of afternoons that silence criticism. Across the seasons Flagside holds on record, Isak arrived at Liverpool having scored 24 goals in each of his last two campaigns at Newcastle United, so the bar set by his own recent history is a high one, and a former manager publicly flagging his mistake only sharpens the scrutiny.

Slot's week of noise

Football365 is so far the only outlet reporting both the Iraola comments and Van Dijk's VAR complaint, so the detail should be treated as a single-source account until others confirm it. Even on that basis, Slot now has an Isak mistake being discussed by a rival manager and a senior player questioning officiating to manage this week, on top of preparing for the next fixture.