Isak and Gakpo Still Doubts as Jacquet Returns Before Liverpool–City
GOATIFYThree days before Manchester City arrive at Anfield, Liverpool have two important questions they cannot yet answer: will Alexander Isak be fit to lead the line, and will Cody Gakpo be available to help him? Both forwards returned early from international duty, and Andoni Iraola confirmed that neither was fit when he gave his latest assessment. Thursday's training pictures brought some encouragement in defence, with Jérémy Jacquet back among the squad, but they did not settle the attacking uncertainty.
Sunday's October 11 meeting is already a demanding test. City have won their opening five Premier League games under Enzo Maresca, while Liverpool are unbeaten but still searching for a more convincing balance between intensity and control. The fitness decisions now threaten to make that tactical challenge considerably harder.
Two Forwards, Two Different Fitness Races
Isak's problem is muscular: he left Sweden's camp with a thigh issue after appearing in the international window. Sweden's staff initially described it as minor, but that is not the same as a guarantee that he can play a high-intensity league match. Gakpo's concern is different. He suffered an ankle problem while representing the Netherlands and also returned to Merseyside early. Iraola's assessment was deliberately cautious: both players were injured at the time of his interview, with their availability dependent on recovery before Sunday.
The distinction matters because a late fitness test is not simply a yes-or-no question. A player may be available for a short appearance without being ready for 90 minutes of repeated accelerations, changes of direction and defensive pressing. For a striker recovering from a thigh complaint, sprinting and sharp movements into the penalty area are especially relevant; for a wide forward with an ankle issue, planting, turning and contact can be uncomfortable. Those are general demands of their roles, not diagnoses or predictions about either player's medical status.
Liverpool's concern goes beyond the possibility of missing two familiar names on the team sheet. Isak has scored four Premier League goals in five matches this season, one behind Erling Haaland in the early scoring race. Gakpo has contributed two goals and four assists across competitions, and the partnership has been a major source of Liverpool's best attacking moments. At Ipswich in September, Gakpo supplied both of Isak's goals in a 2-0 win. Against Bournemouth on September 20, a driving run and cross from Gakpo helped create Isak's winner, even though a deflection meant the official assist was not credited to him.
Those sequences illustrate a useful connection: Gakpo can advance the ball and unsettle defenders before Isak attacks the space. Remove either half and Liverpool must change how the final pass reaches the penalty area. Remove both and the adjustment becomes larger still. With Hugo Ekitike unavailable because of a long-term Achilles injury, the squad has fewer straightforward options for a conventional centre-forward role. Liverpool have alternatives, but none offers exactly the same combination of established movement, physical presence and familiarity with the team's attacking patterns.
Thursday reports that Isak and Gakpo were absent from the main training session add to the uncertainty, although an absence from one session does not establish their matchday status. The decisive information will be the club's later medical assessment and Iraola's final selection, not an assumption that a precautionary day away from group training means either player has been ruled out.
Jacquet's Return Gives Liverpool a Defensive Lift
The more encouraging development on Thursday came at the opposite end of the pitch. Jérémy Jacquet was seen back in Liverpool training after his absence from France's match against Belgium, where a hamstring concern had prevented him from taking part. His participation is a positive sign for the centre-back's readiness, though it is not itself a formal confirmation that he will start against City. Iraola had not provided a detailed Jacquet update in the earlier injury interview.
That distinction is important because Liverpool's defensive options affect the way the team can attack. Jacquet has been one of the bright points of the opening weeks, bringing mobility and recovery pace alongside the experience of Virgil van Dijk. A reliable central partnership gives the full-backs and midfielders greater freedom to step forward, and it helps Liverpool defend the space left behind their press. Against a City side comfortable moving the ball through pressure, even a brief breakdown in those distances can create a dangerous transition.
The French defender's return also arrives at a useful moment in Liverpool's schedule. Sunday brings City, followed by a midweek Champions League trip to LASK and another league fixture at Brentford. That sequence makes managing workloads as important as naming the strongest possible starting eleven. The temptation to rush an injured player back for a marquee opponent has to be weighed against the cost of losing him for several subsequent games.
For now, the confirmed development is modest but meaningful: Jacquet trained on October 8 after an international-duty scare. That is better news than another absence, and it gives Iraola an option he feared might be missing. It does not cancel out the attacking concerns, but it could make the coach's defensive game plan less improvised if the forwards are still unavailable.
Iraola's City Problem Is Bigger Than the Team Sheet
Iraola has repeatedly described the tension at the centre of his Liverpool project. He wants a side that attacks vertically and presses with intensity, but he also wants control rather than a match that swings from end to end. The coach pointed to the 2-2 draw at Newcastle as an example of a game in which Liverpool's attacking ambition exposed them to transitions. Later performances have offered more defensive control, he said, without always delivering the same fluidity in possession.
The statistics suggest why Sunday's opponent is an unusually difficult test of that balance. Liverpool have applied high-intensity pressure to 48.9 percent of opponents' touches in the attacking half this Premier League season, the highest rate in the division. City, however, have completed 83 percent of their passes while facing high-intensity pressure, also a league-leading figure. One team wants to force mistakes early; the other has so far been particularly good at avoiding them. The clash could therefore be decided as much by what happens after Liverpool's first press is bypassed as by the number of chances either side creates.
Haaland has five league goals, while Isak has four. That headline comparison is less useful if the Liverpool striker cannot play, but it underlines the threat City carry into Anfield. Maresca's team have won all five league matches and arrive with the confidence of a perfect start. Liverpool's two wins and three draws show resilience under Iraola, yet they have not matched City's results. The hosts also have a run of four successive Premier League draws at Anfield, making a home victory a particularly appealing way to reset the mood.
If Isak and Gakpo are unavailable, Iraola could ask Lewis Koumas to provide a more conventional attacking reference point, use Florian Wirtz in a false-nine role, or move Bradley Barcola or Dominik Szoboszlai into a central position. These are tactical possibilities, not reported team selections. Each changes the trade-off: Koumas offers direct running but less senior experience; Wirtz could connect midfield and attack while reducing the presence of a natural finisher; a converted winger might stretch City's defence differently but would require careful support around the box.
There is another variable beyond injuries. Sunday's meeting is the first Premier League Liverpool–City fixture without either Jürgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola on the touchline since March 2015. The managerial identities have changed, but the pressure surrounding the match has not. City also enter it amid an appeal against a financial-rules verdict, a major off-field story that should not distract from the specific football questions Iraola has to solve.
The sensible approach is to separate what is known from what is possible. Isak and Gakpo remain fitness doubts, Jacquet has returned to training, and City have been both prolific and composed under pressure. Whether Liverpool can convert home intensity into useful possession—and whether their best attacking partnership is available to finish those moves—will shape the contest more than any speculative lineup drawn up days in advance.
For Liverpool, the immediate priority is clarity rather than bravado. An available Isak and Gakpo would restore the partnership that has produced some of the team's cleanest attacking chances; a fit Jacquet would strengthen the defence behind Iraola's aggressive press. If the two forwards cannot recover in time, the coach will need a different route to goal against the league's only perfect-start side.
Sunday's team sheet will answer the medical questions. The match itself will answer the larger one: can Iraola's Liverpool be intense enough to unsettle Manchester City without surrendering the control they have spent the opening weeks trying to build?
