LASK v Liverpool European nights return

Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the season just three days ago. How will the team respond? How will the manager? Although I expect a win from the Reds today, it will be very interesting to see how the squad is used, with a trip to Brentford looming on Saturday morning. A rotation is clearly needed, and given Gravenberch’s red card in the Prem we can only assume he will play tonight, since he is suspended for Saturday. We must give this opposition a good run and show confidence in our ranks. I fear a troubling performance would kill all the momentum we gained before the international break.

Matchday two, and a chance to reset

Liverpool go to Austria sitting 15th in the league phase after beating Atlético Madrid 2-1 at Anfield on matchday one. LASK are 27th, having lost their opener 1-0 away at AEK Athens.

A note on the data in this one: Understat doesn’t cover the Champions League or the Austrian league, so there are no xG numbers, shot maps or percentile rankings for this match. Everything below is results and team news from football-data.org and the club.

The Champions League is honestly not the most important competition at this point of the year. With a friendly schedule in the league phase, combined with the constant battle of playing games every three or four days, the squad will need to be rotated properly to sustain form and to take all three points at Brentford on Saturday. No disrespect to LASK, but this Liverpool XI will be a mixture of first- and second-team players, as well as some lads playing positions they may not normally play to make the shape work. I feel LASK will be able to field their first team and will want to knock off the Reds as they travel to Austria for this midweek match.

Who LASK are

Not a soft draw on paper. LASK are the defending Austrian champions, having won the second league title in the club’s history last season, and they sit third domestically with 16 points from eight games — five wins, a draw and two defeats, with a goal difference of +10.

They got here the hard way too, knocking out Celtic 5-4 on aggregate in qualifying. The form note going in: they lost 2-0 at home to Rapid Wien last weekend.

Honestly, I expect LASK to come out firing on all fronts, trying to use the home crowd and their aggressiveness to turn the game on its head and grab an early lead. If Liverpool can withstand the first 10 to 15 minutes of that onslaught, they can grow into the game and show the quality to overwhelm an opposition that may not have the technical prowess to keep up with them. I want the Reds to take this seriously, because we have seen certain players take their foot off the gas in the past and let the other team back in. This has to be a match where, if we go in front, we hold strong and stay brave when the opposition press harder and faster up the pitch.

Liverpool’s injury list keeps growing

Iraola said on Tuesday that Isak, Gakpo and Szoboszlai are all close, but none of them had trained with the group: “They are not far, but it’s difficult to tell you right now any of the three have trained with the group.” He wouldn’t commit on whether they’ll be back for Brentford, Villarreal or Brighton.

Also out: Bradley, Leoni and Ekitike, all long-term. On top of that, Endo and Chiesa are fit but ineligible — neither was named in Liverpool’s Champions League squad for the league phase.

The 23 who travelled include Alisson, Van Dijk, Wirtz, Mac Allister, Gravenberch and Barcola, along with the young forwards — Ngumoha, Danns and Sonni-Lambie.

One piece of good news in there: Gravenberch is available. His red card against City carries a domestic ban only, so it doesn’t apply in Europe.

Iraola also flagged that he can’t name the same side again: it’s “going to be difficult to put exactly the same starting XI tomorrow” given freshness and niggles. He was blunt about the task, though — this is a game “we want to win, we need to win.”

This is a night for the kids. I want to see Nyoni, Rio and Frimpong, and Wirtz again, to find the form he has been desperately searching for. Maybe a Joe Gomez appearance, maybe a half from Tsimikas. Muñoz I think can go again, and possibly even a Mamardashvili switch in goal to give Alisson a rest. Overall I want to see a big rotation, with plenty of players getting 45 to 60 minutes.

Where the league form sits

For context on the side Iraola is rotating, here’s the Premier League picture going into this one: ninth, two wins and three draws before City, and now a first defeat.

The team news

Liverpool: Alisson; Frimpong, Araújo, Jacquet, Tsimikas; Gravenberch, Nyoni; Ngumoha, Wirtz, Barcola; Koumas.

Substitutes: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Gomez, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Muñoz, Chambers, McConnell, Danns, Sonni-Lambie, Lucky.

Four changes from the City defeat, and Tsimikas captains the side. Van Dijk, Kerkez, Mac Allister and Muñoz all drop to the bench, with Nyoni and Ngumoha handed starts.

That is close to the rotation I asked for above: Nyoni, Rio and Frimpong all start, Wirtz gets another run at finding his form, and Tsimikas gets far more than the half I suggested — he gets the armband.

Prediction

3-1 Liverpool, with Rio, Koumas and Wirtz on the scoresheet.