Liverpool Can’t Afford To Ease Off Against LASK, Says Iraola

Three points from the opening Champions League match buy you precisely one week of credit, not a season, and Andoni Iraola knows it. Beating Atletico Madrid at Anfield was a fine start, but our head coach has made clear this week that a different task now awaits in Austria, one that carries none of the comfort of a good result already banked.

Why Austria Is A Different Test

LASK arrive into this fixture as the reigning champions of their own league, a side used to dominating possession rather than chasing games. Iraola has been blunt about what that means for Liverpool. Continental away trips rarely offer rhythm, and a group phase can slip away in a single sloppy evening if a team treats the occasion lightly. There is no room, in his view, for Liverpool to assume the hard part is already done.

Iraola’s own message was simple enough. Dropping points in this competition proves costly fast, he suggested, and that is exactly why Liverpool should be adding to their tally now rather than leaving it until later in the group.

Our View

This reads like a manager managing expectations rather than nerves, and that is probably the right instinct. Liverpool have earned breathing room with the Atletico result, but European campaigns are won by sides that treat every away leg as if it decides everything. LASK will fancy making this uncomfortable, and if Liverpool arrive thinking the job is half done, they could find themselves searching for answers at the wrong moment.