Liverpool turn their attention to the Champions League this week, with a trip to Austria only days after a Premier League defeat.
Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield on Sunday, ending their unbeaten start to the Premier League season.
The match was goalless at half-time. It changed when Ryan Gravenberch received a second yellow card in the 62nd minute.
Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki then scored in the 65th, 68th and 78th minutes.
Europe has gone better so far.
Liverpool opened their Champions League campaign with a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid at Anfield. Dominik Szoboszlai equalised before half-time, and Alexis Mac Allister scored the winner five minutes into the second half.
Iraola now has a short turnaround and a thin squad. Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Szoboszlai all missed the City game, and Iraola said it will be “difficult” for any injured player to recover in time.
The opponents are LASK, who host Liverpool at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz.
The Austrian champions reached their first Champions League league phase by beating Celtic 5-4 on aggregate after extra time, having trailed 4-0 in the tie.
They lost 1-0 at AEK Athens in their opening league-phase match.
LASK also have injury problems of their own. According to Laola, head coach Dietmar Kuhbauer has ruled out American defender George Bello for the Liverpool match.
Bello came off during LASK’s 2-0 home defeat to Rapid Wien on Sunday.
“George appears to have a muscle injury. He definitely won’t be available on Wednesday,” Kuhbauer said about the Abuja-born left-back. The coach added that he hopes the injury is not a serious one.
Bello is not the only absentee. Forward Moses Usor came off with a shoulder injury 12 minutes after coming on as a substitute, and his availability is in doubt.
Kuhbauer expects midfielder Sascha Horvath to be fit.
The timing is difficult for LASK. With the Rapid game, they have played nine matches in 28 days. Kuhbauer said the club cannot afford more injured players and still has to field a team that can challenge Liverpool.
The defeat to Rapid left LASK without a win in four competitive games. Kuhbauer said his side were far from a win and acknowledged that Liverpool play at a much higher level than Rapid.
The clubs have met before. Liverpool won 3-1 in Linz and 4-0 at Anfield in the 2023-24 Europa League group stage.
Support DaveOCKOP and enjoy the site completely ad-free. You’ll get an uninterrupted browsing experience while helping us continue to deliver the latest Liverpool news, breaking stories and exclusives. Go ad-free today.