Liverpool suffered its first defeat of the season against Manchester City, and Andoni Iraola will have to pick his players up quickly as they face a daunting run of fixtures
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 11: Andoni Iraola, Manager / Head Coach of Liverpool consoles Alexis Mac Allister and Milos Kerkez of Liverpool during the Premier League 2026/27 match between Liverpool FC and Manchester City at Anfield on October 11, 2026 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Andoni Iraola and Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the season against Manchester City(Image: Getty Images)
Things don’t get any easier for Liverpool after it suffered its first defeat of the season - albeit, it’s hard to gauge what the 3-0 loss to Manchester City actually means in the grand scheme of things.
Andoni Iraola will have to pick his players up after a tense afternoon at Anfield ended in a heavy defeat for his side, with the game turning on Ryan Gravenberch’s sending-off just after the hour mark.
The backdrop of City’s guilty verdict does leave the Premier League in a strange position, and until any sanctions are handed down, Liverpool will have to continue not knowing what sort of impact Sunday’s defeat will have.
What is clear is Iraola does have plenty to work on with his own side. Although Liverpool looked the better of the two teams before Gravenberch’s sending-off, it also didn’t look like it carried much goal threat without the injured Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo.
Florian Wirtz’s form continues to be a major worry, and Bradley Barcola’s slow start is not what the club would have expected following his big-money signing in the summer.
Iraola will have to find a way to get his team firing quickly, with the games coming thick and fast, and no let-up when it comes to the difficulty of the Reds’ opponents.
Ronald Araujo and Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool during the Premier League 2026/27 match against Manchester City
Liverpool will have to react quickly following defeat to Manchester City(Image: Photo by Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Liverpool’s next assignment sees it travel to Austria to take on LASK in the Champions League on Wednesday. There is little opportunity for the Reds to take a breather over the next month, with eight games to play before the next international break in November.
And, just taking the Premier League into account, Liverpool faces arguably the toughest run imaginable right now as it faces the rest of the current top four following the defeat to City.
Liverpool's next 5 Premier League games
Brentford (A), October 17
Brighton (H), October 25
Arsenal (H), November 1
Crystal Palace (A), November 8
Manchester United (H), November 22
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With both Brentford and Brighton riding high, Liverpool faces a stern challenge to return to winning ways before facing defending champion Arsenal at the start of next month. From there, a trip to Crystal Palace has proven to be a tough assignment in recent years, and hosting Manchester United isn't exactly easing back into things after the next international break.
And when you add in games against Villarreal and Fenerbahce in the Champions League, and a Carabao Cup tie against Chelsea, it is a truly daunting run for the Reds, and one that will tell Iraola a lot more about his side.
The Liverpool boss outlined the challenge before facing City, saying: "This run of games we have now between the international breaks, the amount of games is very high and we play against the top four in the league, three Champions League games, the Carabao Cup game against Chelsea, so also a very condensed run of games, I think it's four games in nine or 10 days, so I think it will say a lot about us. I think after this run of games, we will know better where we really are."