Andoni Iraola sweating over fitness of key Liverpool duo ahead of Man City clash

Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola has cast doubt on the chances of Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo being fit to face Manchester City this weekend.

The pair both returned home early from international duty with Sweden and the Netherlands with thigh and ankle problems respectively.

Having inherited Hugo Ekitike’s long-term Achilles injury, Iraola could be without his two senior forwards for Sunday’s highly-anticipated clash, City’s first match since an independent commission found them guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules.

“I think Alex Isak and Cody Gakpo both have had to leave the national teams with injuries,” Iraola told beIN Sports.

“Now it’s a matter of if they are going to recover in time to help us in the next game or not. But right now they are both injured.”

Iraola did not mention the status of centre-back Jeremy Jacquet, who was omitted from France’s 4-1 victory over Belgium on Monday with a hamstring strain.

The visit of City is the biggest game of Iraola’s Liverpool career so far and despite four wins and three draws his side have struggled to find anything close to their best form.

“We’ve been unbeaten but they’ve won all of them, so it makes a big difference in their side,” he said.

“I think we need to be very, very good if we want to beat City because they’ve been especially offensively scoring a lot of goals lately.

“We know the names that are very dangerous. But I think also we’ve shown good defensive improvements lately and I hope we can defend the threats that they have and also hurt them on the other side.”

The international break will have done little to help the consistency Iraola needs as he tries to get a squad which hugely underperformed last season to successfully adopt his methods.

“I think the goal is quite clear and I think everyone understands what we are trying to build,” he said.

“Try to be more intense, more vertical, but also you want to control the games.

“For example, I think in Newcastle (a 2-2 draw) we played a good game but probably we conceded two goals in transition (and) you want to control a little bit more of the games.

“I think lately we’ve been controlling the games much more but we lacked a little bit (of) this offensive fluidity that we had in the first game. So, now it’s a matter of balancing this a little.

“Obviously we want to attack very well and defend very well but sometimes you have to choose or you have to adapt the team to what you prefer or what is the requirements of a specific game and we are trying to balance all this.”

PA