Liverpool have confirmed their 23-player squad for the Champions League fixture away to LASK on Wednesday evening.
The Reds are in Linz to take on the Austrian champions, who they defeated home and away in the Europa League group stage three years ago, and Andoni Iraola’s side will seek to build upon the winning start they made in this competition against Atletico Madrid last month.
The Merseysiders were without several big-name players in the weekend defeat to Manchester City, with Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo all added to the injury list since the recent international window.
Liverpool confirm travelling squad to face LASK
On Tuesday lunchtime, the Liverpool squad to face LASK was announced via liverpoolfc.com, and none of the aforementioned three players have recovered in time for the match at the Raiffeisen Arena.
Given the extensive injury list, and the omissions of Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo from the Reds’ Champions League squad, there are several youngsters included in the travelling party, one of whom (Josh Sonni-Lambie) has yet to make his senior competitive debut.
Liverpool travelling squad: Alisson, Gomez, Van Dijk, Jacquet, Kerkez, Wirtz, Mac Allister, Tsimikas, Munoz, Mamardashvili, Woodman, Barcola, Frimpong, Araujo, Gravenberch, Nyoni, Chambers, McConnell, Koumas, Ngumoha, Danns, Sonni-Lambie, Lucky.
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Will Iraola rotate heavily on Wednesday evening?
It’s unsurprising but still disappointing that Szoboszlai, Gakpo and Isak will all miss out on Wednesday, but given the tight turnaround time between fixtures (the Reds play again on Saturday), Iraola has evidently taken a risk-mitigating approach to the trio’s fitness.
The head coach might hint at a recovery timeline for those three players when he holds his pre-match press conference later this afternoon, in the hope that all (or at least some) are available for the weekend visit to Brentford.
John Aldridge has implored the Basque not to make wholesale changes to his starting XI against LASK, although we expect that there’ll be a few alterations in order to manage players’ workload as best as possible.
The likes of Kostas Tsimikas and Jeremie Frimpong could come into the back four, while we expect that Rio Ngumoha will be handed a start after he came off the bench against Man City on Sunday.
Despite the multiple body blows, Liverpool should still be capable of returning home with all three points against the Champions League first-timers, although Celtic can testify from the play-off round in August that the Austrian side aren’t to be taken lightly.