On paper, Liverpool went into their Champions League match against LASK heavy favourites against the third-place side in the Austrian Bundesliga. Of course, how a match looks like it should play out on paper doesn’t always end up being how it plays out when things kick off.
On this occasion, though, Andoni Iraola’s Reds energetically lived up to expectations and ran rampant against their overmatched opponents—at least up until the game felt so thoroughly decided that the collectively seemed to decide to take a nap rather than continuing to play football.
The end result was a 6-3 victory, with the Reds going up 4-0 then making it 6-1 after LASK scored their first. Then they took a nap. Still, on balance it was a performance that seemed both expected and necessary for a group needed to bounce back after Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City.
“I think that we attacked really well, especially first half,” Iraola reflected after tonight’s match. “Against a very compact block it’s not always easy as they play five at the back and there’s not a lot of spaces between, but I think we found some very good pockets for the three up front.
“Obviously the second half probably was more about exploiting the spaces, but I think offensively it has been a very complete game. You have different demands for each game and you have to try to analyze the players not just that you can rest but also what players can perform well.
“What players against LASK today can help us to win the game? What players can help us against Brentford? And after Brentford we play in three days Villarreal, another very difficult Champions League game, so we will need more than 11, more than 12, more than 13 players involved.”
As for that late-match nap that allowed LASK to turn a 6-1 hammering into a vaguely respectable 6-3 defeat against top opposition, Iraola seemed relatively sanguine, blaming it on choosing to replace centre halves Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.
On paper, of course, Van Dijk and Gomez are no poor pairing. Over an hour into the match and with any real urgency seemingly long gone, having two new centre halves come in cold at the same time does carry an inherent risk of them simply not getting up to speed quick enough.
“I think there is a reason why managers would never usually change both together,” Iraola added. “It’s difficult to change both centre halves and have a new pair come in straight away, but I had to start thinking of the next game as we’re playing in less than three days against Brentford.
“So I think Ronald and Jeremy were players that have demanded a lot of lately, that have played a lot of games with us, with the national teams, and I thought it was a moment to give them rest. But obviously thinking of today it’s maybe not the right thing to change both together.”