Andoni Iraola has given Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola his full backing, but the Liverpool head coach has made clear that the rest of his squad must start producing in front of goal while his leading scorers are unavailable.
Liverpool will again be without Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai when they visit the Austrian side Lask in the Champions League on Wednesday. Iraola said he did not know when any of the three would be available, with all of them carrying minor injuries picked up on international duty. The trio are Liverpool’s top scorers this season.
Their absence placed extra responsibility on Wirtz and Barcola during Sunday’s match against Manchester City, and both struggled as Liverpool suffered their first defeat under Iraola. Barcola has yet to register a goal or an assist in six appearances since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain for £123m, and has not won possession in the final third this season. Wirtz has one assist to his name this campaign and continues to underwhelm in a Liverpool shirt.
“Cody, Alex and Dom are our top scorers this season and now we don’t have them. We need other players to give us those numbers,” Iraola said. “We trust the players we have now to play in those positions. With Bradley and Flo, they have had good games and bad games this season like everyone else. We know their level and we know they will give us good performances.”
Iraola argued that the raw numbers do not tell the whole story of Barcola’s contribution. He pointed to a chance for Lewis Koumas against City, which the forward connected with well but did not convert. Had it gone in, Barcola would have been credited with an assist for an otherwise identical performance. “Sometimes we focus only on the numbers,” Iraola said. “With Bradley, the other day he had good situations and we did not finish them. Bradley and Flo are players that I trust 100%.”
The Liverpool head coach said he was happy with his team’s spirit, attitude and work rate in Sunday’s defeat, including from the offensive players, but not with how the side reacted collectively to Ryan Gravenberch’s dismissal. “A lot of what happened after we went down to 10 men was because we conceded straight away,” he said. “We were making adjustments and then you go 1-0 down and it’s different, because then you have to go [for it] and you get caught in-between.”
Iraola felt the timing of the concession was the decisive factor. “The goal we conceded straight away hurt us. If we had made the adjustments earlier and been more compact at 0-0, it becomes a lot easier. But once you concede it’s not enough to just be compact. You need to go a little bit more and then spaces open.”
Iraola confirmed he is likely to make changes in Linz, with several players carrying knocks from the City game. Virgil van Dijk, meanwhile, is in line to captain Liverpool for the 200th time in all competitions on Wednesday.