Andoni Iraola has said that he maintains full trust in two Liverpool players who’ve been the subject of heavy criticism from the media of late.Florian Wirtz became the Reds’ first £100m player when joining from Bayer Leverkusen in June 2025, while Bradley Barcola arrived at Anfield from Paris Saint-Germain in a £123m deal a few weeks ago.The duo are yet to score in 13 combined appearances for LFC this term, with Jamie Carragher calling for the German to be dropped from the starting XI and Emmanuel Petit dismissing the French winger as ‘overrated’ (talkSPORT).Iraola sticks up for under-fire Liverpool duoDuring his pre-match press conference on Tuesday ahead of this evening’s Champions League fixture against LASK, Iraola gave the under-fire duo his full backing and voiced his confidence that both will make decisive contributions for Liverpool this season.The Basque said (via Liverpool Echo): “With Bradley and Flo, they have had good games and bad games this season like everyone else. We know their level and we know they will give us good performances.”The head coach added: “With Bradley, the other day [v Manchester City], he had good situations and we did not finish them. Bradley and Flo are players that I trust 100%.”(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustSome of the criticism has been excessiveLiverpool fans would be justified in feeling that both Barcola and Wirtz have a lot more to offer than what they’ve produced in recent weeks, but some of the criticism of the pair has been way over the top.The French winger has only played six matches so far for the Reds, and while he hasn’t had the immediate impact for which we’d have hoped, writing him off this early would be utterly ridiculous.Wirtz can no longer fall back upon the ‘settling in’ grace period, although some of what’s been said about him in certain media circles is borderline slanderous, such as talkSPORT‘s Jason Cundy calling him ‘the biggest waste of money the Premier League has ever seen’.Of course Iraola isn’t going to throw the duo under the bus in public, but in continuing to select the pair, he’s demonstrating his ongoing faith in them to deliver on the pitch and silence the ever-growing army of critics.With Liverpool shorn of numerous attacking players against LASK this evening, the stage should be set for Barcola and/or Wirtz to make a decisive impact for the Reds in Austria.The post ‘Players that I trust 100%’ – Andoni Iraola jumps to the defence of much-maligned Liverpool duo appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.