Liverpool manager, Andoni Iraola, has insisted that his side must maintain their high-intensity style of play despite a growing injury crisis ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash against Brighton.
The Reds will be without Dominik Szoboszlai, Jeremie Frimpong and Victor Munoz for the visit of Brighton, while Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo have recently returned from injuries sustained during international duty.
Iraola’s demanding approach, which brought him success during his time at Bournemouth, earned him the Liverpool job.
However, the Spaniard is now dealing with the additional physical demands of European football and has refused to lower his expectations despite the mounting injury concerns.
“The way we want to play, you cannot play 70 per cent,” Iraola said at his pre-match press conference.
“Imagine you don’t have a right-winger on the bench, I will put someone as a right-winger. I prefer to do this than you save your energy so you have to last 90 minutes.
“Give everything for 60 minutes, 65, 70, 72, then someone will do the 18, 35, whatever because we need to play full gas.
“I would like to say we are good enough to play 70 per cent and win games, but it’s not (the case). We have to play our very best because the teams we have in front of us are very good.”
Liverpool head into the weekend four points behind third-placed Brighton, who have scored 23 goals in seven Premier League matches and currently lead the division’s scoring charts.
Iraola acknowledged Brighton’s impressive form but believes his players are in a good position to compete for victory.
“I think they are doing incredibly well. They deserved all the praise they are getting and I think there is little doubt there. I think it’s a team that is very well coached,” he said.
“We have to be at our very best to beat Brighton because now they are with confidence. But I also see my team in a good place.”
Meanwhile, the Liverpool boss is hopeful that Szoboszlai will return to action soon after his comeback was cut short during last weekend’s victory over Brentford.
“I don’t think he’s far, but he hasn’t trained with the group still and also considering that we started him and he had to go out, we will probably take one or two days more than we would last week,” Iraola said.
“He’s in a good place. Dom is already training outside alone and he’s going to train with the group, but he’s not ready for this one.”
