Liverpool's Injury Crisis Bites: Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo All Miss Anfield Defeat
Liverpool were without injured trio Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo for the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, forcing a 21-year-old debutant up front — and Ryan Gravenberch’s red card adds a suspension to the availability list.
Published 12 Oct 20262 min read
Liverpool's availability problems went from concern to crisis on Sunday, as Andoni Iraola's side went down 3-0 at home to Manchester City without three of their most important attacking assets. Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo were all missing through injury for the visit of the champions' conquerors, and the makeshift attack never looked like troubling a City side that has now won six from six at the top of the Premier League.
Who is out and what it cost
Szoboszlai's absence robbed the midfield of its chief presser and link player, while the missing Isak and Gakpo left Liverpool without both of their first-choice forwards. The knock-on effect was stark: 21-year-old Lewis Koumas was handed his Premier League debut up front, thrown into one of the most hostile fixtures in the English calendar against the league leaders.
The toothlessness was obvious long before the goals arrived. Liverpool trailed 0.47 xG to 0.08 in the first half and made only 15 interceptions across the match, managing just four shots on target all game — all of them after the contest had effectively been decided.
Gravenberch suspension compounds the problem
The situation worsened around the hour mark. Ryan Gravenberch, already on a booking, lunged at Jeremy Doku shortly after the Belgian's introduction and was shown a second yellow, leaving Liverpool with ten men just before Erling Haaland opened the scoring. Goals from Haaland, Doku and Rayan Cherki followed, and Gravenberch's dismissal means a suspension that will keep him out of the next league fixture as well.
What it means for the table
The defeat leaves Liverpool ninth, nine points behind the leaders, and turns the coming weeks into a salvage operation. Iraola's immediate task is getting bodies back: until Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo return, Liverpool's bench is being asked to cover for the spine of the team, and the fixture list offers no relief. The uncertainty is, in Iraola's own words, 'not good for anyone' — but it is the injury list, more than anything else, that is currently shaping Liverpool's season.