Gakpo’s Fitness, Not Team Selection, Looks Like Iraola’s Real Fulham Headache
Team news week at Liverpool has settled into a familiar shape under Andoni Iraola: one genuine fitness worry, a handful of longer term absentees ticking along in the background, and a manager who refuses to commit to anything until the very last training session. This week the worry belongs to Cody Gakpo, and our sense is that his availability, more than any tactical switch, will shape how Saturday’s meeting with Fulham actually looks.
Why Gakpo, and not Barcola, is the one to watch
Gakpo sat out the midweek win over Atletico Madrid at Anfield with what Iraola described as an adductor issue, and the coach was in no rush this week to promise anything different for the weekend. Asked directly about his squad, he kept his answers deliberately open: training would continue right up to matchday, and a call on Gakpo would only come once the final session had been assessed. That is not evasiveness for its own sake, it is simply an honest reflection of where Liverpool are with a forward whose importance to the attack has grown all season.
Bradley Barcola’s situation reads very differently, even though the pair were mentioned in the same breath earlier in the week. Barcola came through his full debut against Atletico before being withdrawn late on, and the explanation given was cramp rather than anything structural. Iraola’s own language about the winger, that he simply tightened up late in the game, suggests this is a non issue that has been talked up more than it needed to be. Expect him involved against Fulham unless something changes drastically between now and kickoff.
The longer term absentees tell their own story
Behind those two headline names sits a quieter, more instructive picture. Joe Gomez is nearing a return after the muscle issue that has kept him sidelined since the summer, which will be a welcome boost given how thin central defensive cover has looked at times this season. Federico Chiesa remains further behind in his own recovery, with no obvious return date attached to his rehabilitation just yet.
Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni continue to be the three names absent from any matchday conversation, and of that trio it is Ekitike whose situation carries the most weight. Iraola addressed his recovery in more detail than usual this week, explaining that the medical staff had specifically discussed his timeline while finalising squads for the upcoming European fixtures. The suggestion that there is a realistic chance he features in the closing two group stage matches, with a fuller framework built around a possible January return, reads as measured rather than optimistic for optimism’s sake. Nobody at Liverpool is promising an early comeback, but nobody is ruling one out either.
Fulham arrive with fewer headaches, and one familiar face
Alvaro Arbeloa’s Fulham travel to Anfield with a much shorter absentee list, Tom Cairney’s knee complaint aside, and that in itself is worth noting given how stretched Liverpool’s own squad has looked in recent weeks. For Arbeloa personally, this fixture carries extra weight. Nearly a hundred appearances for Liverpool between 2007 and 2009 mean he knows exactly what Saturday’s atmosphere will feel like, even if his first return to Anfield as a head coach rather than a player brings a different kind of nerves. His own comments about the ground still meaning something special to him will resonate with plenty of supporters who remember him as a player, whatever happens on the pitch this weekend.
Our view
None of this changes the basic equation for Saturday. Liverpool go in on the back of a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid and should have the confidence to see off a Fulham side still finding its feet under a rookie Premier League head coach. Gakpo’s fitness is worth watching right up to team news on the day, but even a late withdrawal shouldn’t be enough to derail a Liverpool side that has more depth in attack than it is sometimes given credit for. The bigger story of this week may end up being the quiet progress of Gomez and the cautiously encouraging noises around Ekitike rather than anything that happens over ninety minutes against Fulham.