Liverpool face LASK with trio still out for UCL clash

Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola has confirmed the club will make changes for Wednesday's Champions League match against LASK in Linz, with Cody Gakpo, Alexander Isak and Dominik Szoboszlai all remaining sidelined.

The three players missed last weekend's 3-0 Premier League defeat by Manchester City due to fitness issues picked up during the international break. Iraola told reporters on Tuesday that none of them has yet trained with the group.

"They are not far, but it's difficult to tell you right now any of the three have trained with the group," the head coach said. "We are taking it day to day. Probably I think the three of them are not far, I would say. But it's going to be… I don't know if they are going to be ready for Brentford, for Villarreal, for Brighton, I don't know."

Iraola acknowledged rotation is likely given the congested schedule, but stressed the result in Austria remains the priority. "Tomorrow is a game that we want to win, we need to win. We want to start this competition strongly. We have already the first win and we want to win the second one," he said.

Liverpool are playing nine matches in 28 days, with a trip to Brentford on Saturday and a home Champions League fixture against Villarreal the following Tuesday. Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni are long-term absentees, while Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo are ineligible for the European competition.

For LASK, defenders George Bello and Moses Usor are doubts after coming off injured in Saturday's 2-0 Austrian Bundesliga defeat by Rapid Wien. Attacker Ramiz Harakate is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament sustained in July.

LASK lost their Champions League opener 1-0 to AEK Athens but qualified for the league phase after a comeback against Celtic in the play-offs. Head coach Dietmar Kuhbauer called on his side to match Liverpool's level. "We really want to cause an upset, although to do that you need 11 players to put in a top-class performance," he said. "You have to play at the very highest level if you are going to achieve anything."