LASK v Liverpool Team News: Iraola Weighs Rotation as Reds Chase Second Champions League Win

Liverpool are in Austria for a game they need to handle properly. No drama, no overthinking, just a win. That is the job against LASK in Linz, and Andoni Iraola has already made it clear that changes are likely.

The schedule is tight, the squad is stretched, and three important players remain unavailable. Cody Gakpo, Alexander Isak and Dominik Szoboszlai all missed the 3-0 league defeat to Manchester City and none of them are back in full training yet. That matters, because this is already the second of nine matches in 28 days. Manage the load badly and it catches up with you fast.

Iraola was direct about the situation. “They are not far, but it’s difficult to tell you right now any of the three have trained with the group.

“We are taking it day to day.

“Probably I think the three of them are not far, I would say. But it’s going to be… I don’t know if they are going to be ready for Brentford, for Villarreal, for Brighton, I don’t know. I don’t really know.”

Liverpool injuries shape Champions League plans

That answer tells you enough. None of the three are a write-off, but none are ready now. Liverpool have to plan without them again, and that changes the balance of the side.

There are other absences too. Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni are long-term injuries. Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo are unavailable for a different reason, both left out of the Champions League squad list. That narrows Iraola’s options, even if he still has enough to rotate.

And rotate he probably will. “Tomorrow is a game that we want to win, we need to win.

“We want to start this competition strongly. We have already the first win and we want to win the second one, because it’s always difficult to win games in this competition.

“But it’s true that sometimes because of freshness reasons, because of some niggles, I think it’s going to be difficult to put exactly the same starting XI tomorrow.”

That is common sense. Liverpool have Brentford away on Saturday, then Villarreal at home next Tuesday. This part of the calendar is about results and resource management. Sentiment does not matter. Fresh legs do.

LASK injuries offer Liverpool clear opening

LASK are dealing with issues of their own. George Bello and Moses Usor both went off injured in the 2-0 defeat to Rapid Wien at the weekend, while Ramiz Harakate remains out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered in July.

They also come into this game off a 1-0 defeat to AEK Athens in their opening Champions League fixture. So Liverpool are facing a side with confidence not exactly flowing. Even so, LASK did well to get here, overturning the odds against Celtic in the play-offs to reach the league phase.

Their manager, Dietmar Kuhbauer, is saying what he has to say. “It would be a shame if we were to freeze at the mere mention of their name.

“We really want to cause an upset, although to do that you need 11 players to put in a top-class performance, as well as the substitutes.

“You have to play at the very highest level if you are going to achieve anything.”

Fair enough. He is right. Against Liverpool, anything less and the game gets away from you.

Squad freshness remains central for Iraola

Iraola’s focus is broader than one night in Linz. He is trying to navigate a run of games with limited time on the training ground. “You don’t have a lot of time to train,” he said. “You try to prepare the games now a lot of times just with the videos and the tactics boards, just a little bit outside.

“You have to prioritise the freshness of the players.

“Especially now we are playing four games in 10 days, it’s keeping all the legs, all the energy in the games.

“But in cases like Bradley [Barcola] especially, who has been probably the last one to arrive, the more he plays and the more he gets connections with the ones around him, the better he will become.”

That is the reality of top-level squad management. You prepare in meetings, recover between games, and trust the depth. Liverpool were poor against Manchester City, but one bad result does not alter the assignment here. Beat LASK, get six points from two matches, and move on.

It does not need to be pretty. It needs to be efficient. For Liverpool, that should be enough.