Anfield has staged some defining afternoons in Premier League history, but few have arrived with this much riding on a treatment room. Liverpool welcome early leaders Manchester City on Sunday, October 11, and Andoni Iraola could be without both of the forwards who have finally dragged his attack into life — Alexander Isak, nursing the thigh injury that cut short his Sweden duty, and Cody Gakpo, withdrawn from the Netherlands squad on Monday with an ankle problem. This is our predicted Liverpool starting lineup for the biggest game of their season so far, and the tactical gambles Iraola may have to take to stun Enzo Maresca’s relentless league leaders.
The Crisis in Full: Two Stars Down, One Enormous Game Looming
The international break was supposed to give Iraola’s squad a breather. Instead, it has become a slow-motion disaster. On Sunday night in Belgrade, Cody Gakpo lasted just 17 minutes of the Netherlands’ 2-1 Nations League win over Serbia after a heavy challenge from Sasa Lukic caught his left ankle. He tried to play on, signalled he could not continue, and was replaced. Netherlands boss Xavi Hernandez played it down, but Monday’s scan told a different story. Liverpool confirmed the 27-year-old has withdrawn from the Dutch squad’s remaining fixtures and will return to the AXA Training Centre for further assessment. Reports suggest he could be sidelined for several weeks.
Forty-eight hours earlier, the other half of Liverpool’s attack had already gone down. Alexander Isak played the full 90 minutes and scored the opener in Sweden’s 2-1 win over Romania on Friday — then never boarded the plane for the rest of the camp. Sweden boss Graham Potter confirmed the striker had returned to Merseyside with what he called “a small problem with his thigh”, adding: “It’s not a big one, but because of the amount of games we’ve got in a small space of time, he won’t be able to make those.” The Swedish FA described it as a minor injury. Minor or not, Isak will miss Sweden’s three remaining fixtures, and Liverpool’s medical staff now have 13 days to get their £130 million British-record signing ready for City.
The timing could hardly be worse, because the Isak–Gakpo axis has become the entire story of Liverpool’s attack. Isak has four goals in five Premier League games — finally the ruthless finisher Liverpool paid for after an injury-wrecked debut season that yielded just four league goals in 22 appearances. Gakpo has two goals and four assists in six appearances across all competitions, with 13 chances created — second only to Dominik Szoboszlai in the squad. Most tellingly of all, Gakpo assisted three of Isak’s four league goals and effectively created the fourth, the winner at Bournemouth on September 20. Ten goal involvements between them. Potentially both absent for the visit of the champions-elect. This is a genuine striker crisis.
And the treatment room was already busy. Hugo Ekitike remains out with the Achilles injury that has sidelined him since April and is targeting a late-November comeback. Federico Chiesa has been out since pre-season with a back problem, though there is hope he could return in time to feature against City. Conor Bradley’s knee injury has kept him out since January, and young defender Giovanni Leoni is still rehabilitating a serious ACL injury until November.
Predicted Liverpool XI (4-2-3-1): Who Iraola Will Turn To
Iraola has settled on a 4-2-3-1 as his base shape — the same structure that ground out the 1-0 win at his old club Bournemouth just before the break — and there is no reason to expect a revolution for City. Expect evolution instead, shaped entirely by who is standing. Here is the most likely XI:
Alisson Becker starts in goal, as he does whenever fit. Behind a back four that finally kept consecutive clean sheets at Ipswich and Bournemouth, the Brazilian remains one of the few genuinely world-class operators Iraola can count on. With City’s press designed to force exactly the kind of rushed distribution that has hurt Liverpool this season, Alisson’s calmness with the ball at his feet may matter as much as his shot-stopping.
The back four picks itself. Ronald Araujo has made the right-back spot his own on loan, giving a very solid account of himself on his Premier League debut at Ipswich, and his physicality will be essential against City’s left-sided overloads. Virgil van Dijk and Jérémy Jacquet are the established centre-back pairing — composed, dominant in the air, and now protecting a goal that has suddenly stopped leaking. Milos Kerkez completes the line at left-back, his lung-busting overlaps a key outlet when Liverpool need to escape City’s squeeze.
In the double pivot, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister are the locked-in duo. Szoboszlai leads the squad in chances created and has been Iraola’s most consistent performer; Mac Allister brings the positional discipline and second-ball-winning that Liverpool’s rest defence depends on. Ryan Gravenberch — who started at Ipswich — is the obvious in-game alternative if Iraola wants fresh legs, while teenager Trey Nyoni’s surprise selection ahead of Gravenberch at Bournemouth shows the manager is not afraid of a bold bench call.
The attacking band is where the crisis bites. With Gakpo a major doubt, Bradley Barcola should shift to the left wing. The £123 million deadline-day arrival from Paris Saint-Germain has made two cameos so far — a debut off the bench at Ipswich and a league start at Bournemouth — and this would be his first truly enormous night in a Liverpool shirt. On the right, Victor Muñoz gets the nod after starting at Ipswich and offering exactly the direct, high-energy running Iraola demands from his wide players. Between them, Florian Wirtz starts as the No.10, drifting into the half-spaces where City’s midfield can be hurt.
And up front? We are backing Alexander Isak to make it. Potter’s “small problem” phrasing, the minor-injury designation from both the Swedish FA and the club, and 13 days of rest before October 11 all point toward the Swede leading the line. Four goals in five league games, a strike partnership with Gakpo that has become telepathic, and the kind of penalty-box movement that terrifies high defensive lines — Liverpool need him. But Iraola cannot plan on hope alone, which is where the contingencies come in.
Plan B: Koumas, the Wirtz False Nine and the Chiesa Wildcard
If Isak fails a late fitness test, Iraola’s options range from the sensible to the genuinely fascinating. The straightforward answer is Lewis Koumas. The 21-year-old came through the international break unscathed, replaced Isak for the final ten minutes at Bournemouth, and is currently the only fit senior centre-forward at the club. Throwing a youngster in against the league leaders at Anfield is the kind of gamble that defines managerial reputations — but Koumas offers honest running, a willingness to press from the front, and zero fear.
The more exotic option is Wirtz as a false nine. The German has already shown he can arrive inside the penalty area and finish — he scored from the position during pre-season — and deploying him as a floating nine would drag City’s centre-backs into deeply uncomfortable decisions. Do they follow him and open the space behind for Barcola and Muñoz to attack? Or hold their line and let the most creative player on the pitch turn unopposed between the lines?
Then there is the Chiesa wildcard. If the Italian does return from his back injury in time, he gives Iraola a natural wide forward for either flank — and would allow Barcola to move centrally as a second striker if Isak is missing. Even 30 minutes of Chiesa off the bench would transform Liverpool’s attacking options. Further down the pecking order, Rio Ngumoha waits as the teenage chaos option, and Iraola has already shown at Ipswich that he will morph into a back five to protect a lead, tucking Araujo central and dropping Szoboszlai to right-back. Flexibility is this squad’s superpower.
How Liverpool Can Still Hurt Maresca’s League Leaders
Let us not pretend this is anything other than a colossal task. City arrive at Anfield as early leaders, with Maresca making a perfect start to life in charge and Erling Haaland doing Erling Haaland things at the sharp end. The 114-charges verdict hangs over the club like a storm cloud, but on the pitch they have been ice-cold. Liverpool, by contrast, have been stop-start all season — brilliant in flashes, fragile in others.
But there are cracks to aim at, and Anfield under the lights has swallowed better City sides than this one. Maresca, for the record, has lost both of his previous visits to Anfield as a manager — with Leicester and Chelsea respectively. The tactical battlegrounds are clear. First, the half-spaces: Wirtz operating between City’s midfield and defensive lines is Liverpool’s most dangerous weapon, especially if Isak’s runs in behind pin the centre-backs and stretch the pitch vertically. Second, the wide overloads: Barcola isolated one-v-one against City’s right-back, with Kerkez overlapping to create the two-v-one, is exactly how underdogs have bloodied this City side. Third, set pieces: with Van Dijk, Jacquet and Isak attacking deliveries and Szoboszlai’s wand of a right foot supplying them, dead balls may be Liverpool’s most reliable route to goal.
Out of possession, the double pivot must be flawless. Mac Allister and Szoboszlai have to win the second balls, protect the space in front of the centre-backs, and spring the counter the moment possession is regained. If the press is even slightly disorganised, Haaland will feast.
Score Prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Manchester City
Anfield, a wounded Liverpool side, a striker crisis, and the league leaders in town — this has all the ingredients of one of those famous European-night-style league atmospheres where the crowd drags the team over the line. We are backing Isak to start and to score, Wirtz to run the game between the lines, and the Kop to make the difference late on. It will not be comfortable, and it may require Iraola to roll every dice in his Plan B drawer — but Liverpool’s season starts here. Prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Manchester City.
We will win (liverpool for life)