Why Liverpool’s Trip to Austria Could Expose a Thin Attack
Losing for the first time this season was always going to hurt, but the scale of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City leaves Andoni Iraola with bigger problems than the result itself. For long spells at Anfield, Liverpool matched City stride for stride, only for Ryan Gravenberch’s red card to tilt the contest decisively in the champions elect’s favour. Liverpool now head into a Champions League trip to Austria short on options in exactly the areas where they can least afford it, and the manager’s own words this week have done little to suggest a quick fix is coming. Three members of his attacking group remain doubtful, one longer term absentee has taken a genuine step forward, and the squad as a whole is being asked to cope with a fixture list that offers no room to breathe.
Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo all in doubt
Dominik Szoboszlai’s absence against City had been coming since before kick off, with a hamstring complaint picked up during the September international break never fully settling down. Iraola described it as a case of the midfielder returning from international duty with an overload that turned into a tight hamstring, one he tried to train through without ever feeling right. There is little indication he will be sprung back into contention within the next couple of days, and the more realistic target looks like next weekend’s visit from Brentford rather than this week’s trip away. It is a frustrating setback for a player who had been one of Liverpool’s most consistent performers before the international break intervened.
Alexander Isak’s situation is similarly frustrating. The striker picked up a thigh problem while on duty with Sweden in their win over Romania on 25 September and missed the City game entirely, a gap Liverpool felt immediately as Lewis Koumas was thrown into his first Premier League start in his absence. Cody Gakpo rounds out the trio, having hurt his ankle in a heavy challenge during Holland’s match with Serbia on 27 September before asking to be substituted, never a good sign for a player trying to build momentum. Asked directly about the chances of any of the three being available in Austria, Iraola admitted it’s going to be difficult to recover any of the players given how tightly the fixtures are packed together this week, with barely any time between the City game and the flight abroad.
A couple of bright spots at least
It wasn’t all bad news over the weekend. Jeremy Jacquet shook off a hamstring strain quickly enough to start against City, and Federico Chiesa was finally given his first minutes of the season when he came off the bench, two small mercies in an otherwise difficult week for Iraola’s options. Both will be needed in the weeks ahead if the current run of absences stretches on, and neither looked out of place once they were given minutes. Ryan Gravenberch’s red card also, somewhat perversely, works in Liverpool’s favour for the trip to LASK, since the suspension only applies to domestic fixtures and he remains available for selection in Europe this week, giving Iraola at least one experienced body back in central midfield.
Leoni edges closer, Ekitike and Bradley still some way off
Among the longer term absentees, Giovanni Leoni’s recovery is the one offering real encouragement right now. Signed from Parma for around £26m, the young centre back tore his ACL in last season’s Carabao Cup tie with Southampton and has been out for well over a year since. Reports now suggest he is set to return to full training this week, though a spell with the under-21s before first team involvement looks the sensible route, with a comeback later this month a more realistic target than anything sooner than that. For a defender who has barely had the chance to settle in since his move, every step forward counts.
Hugo Ekitike remains further behind, still working his way back from the ruptured Achilles that ended his season in April’s Champions League quarter final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain and cost him a place at the World Cup. His inclusion in Liverpool’s latest Champions League squad has sparked some cautious optimism that he could be back in contention before the turn of the calendar year. Conor Bradley is in a comparable position, continuing his recovery from the knee ligament damage suffered against Arsenal in January that required surgery. He is working alone and has started touching the ball again, but Iraola was careful to manage expectations, suggesting Leoni’s timeline is further along than Bradley’s and that there is still some distance to travel for the full back yet. Both represent long term projects rather than short term solutions to the current crunch.
What it means for the LASK trip
None of this makes Iraola’s job any easier ahead of a Champions League fixture that was never going to be straightforward even at full strength. Liverpool’s head coach will still expect a response after the manner of Saturday’s collapse, and he has enough quality in reserve to ask for one, but the combined absences of Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo leave the options in the final third unusually narrow for now. The likeliest outcome is a squad that travels light on attacking alternatives, hopes nothing else goes wrong in Austria, and looks instead to Brentford’s visit for the return of at least one of the three. Getting a result away from home matters, but doing it without pushing anyone back too soon matters just as much given how the rest of this season could still unfold for Liverpool, especially with a schedule that shows no sign of easing up any time soon.