Isak and Gakpo Are Out — Liverpool's City Test Now Falls to Koumas
GOATIFYLiverpool were preparing for one of the Premier League's defining early-season fixtures with two important attackers under fitness clouds. On Friday, October 9, Andoni Iraola removed the uncertainty: Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo will both miss Manchester City's visit to Anfield. The news matters because Isak had scored four times in five league matches, while Gakpo offered both a wide outlet and an emergency central option. Liverpool are not merely losing two names from a team sheet. They are losing two different ways to build and finish attacks.
City arrive with five wins from five and a six-point advantage over sixth-placed Liverpool. That is a demanding opponent for a reshaped forward line, especially with Hugo Ekitike already unavailable. Twenty-one-year-old Lewis Koumas is a possible central starter, but the bigger question is how Liverpool's established creators can give him manageable chances instead of asking him to replace Isak's entire influence. The result may turn less on a dramatic selection surprise than on whether Iraola can make an improvised attack function as a unit.
Cover: Cody Gakpo playing for Liverpool against Fulham in January 2026, photo by Timmy96 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0. Archival image, not Sunday's match.
Two Injuries Have Removed Liverpool's Most Reliable Finishing Route
Isak's absence is the most direct blow to Liverpool's scoring rhythm. The Sweden international had four goals in the first five Premier League games, a return that suggested he was finding the consistency the club needed from its central striker. He picked up a thigh problem while representing Sweden against Romania during the international window. Iraola described the issue as small, but the word is no comfort for a team that needs him immediately. A minor injury can still make a player unavailable for the most difficult match on the calendar.
Gakpo's ankle problem followed international duty with the Netherlands against Serbia. The club is assessing his condition day by day, with pain tolerance among the considerations. That is not a confirmed long-term layoff, and it would be wrong to turn the immediate absence into a definitive recovery timetable. But for this particular fixture, Liverpool have lost an attacker who can carry the ball down the left, stretch the opposing full-back and move centrally when the squad needs a different shape.
Those roles are connected. A dangerous central finisher changes the way defenders protect the penalty area, giving wide players more space to receive and turn. A threatening winger, in turn, prevents the opposition from crowding the striker. When both disappear at once, the replacement forwards can become isolated unless the midfield changes its spacing and the full-backs pick their moments to advance. Liverpool's problem is therefore structural as well as numerical.
There is another layer: Ekitike's longer-term absence had already reduced the number of natural senior options through the middle. If Isak were the only unavailable player, Gakpo could have provided an emergency solution. If Gakpo were the only one missing, Isak could have anchored the line while the wide roles rotated. With neither available, Iraola must assemble a new combination rather than make a simple one-for-one substitution.
The encouraging part is that neither new injury is currently described as a long-term setback. The uncomfortable part is that a match against the league leaders does not wait for a better medical report. Liverpool have to separate their medium-term hope of getting players back from the immediate reality of preparing an attack without them.
Archive photo: Alexander Isak representing Sweden at the 2026 World Cup. Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. This is not the Romania match in which his latest injury occurred.
Koumas Can Lead the Line — If Liverpool Build a Plan Around Him
Iraola's most straightforward central option is Lewis Koumas, the 21-year-old Wales forward. The manager has publicly expressed trust in him, pointing to the readiness he has shown in important minutes. That backing matters for a young player who could be thrust into an unusually high-pressure start. It does not, however, mean Koumas has been confirmed in the lineup. Iraola also has ways to redistribute attacking responsibilities without using a conventional No. 9 for every phase.
The first question is what Liverpool would actually ask Koumas to do. Isak can receive between defenders, attack the space behind a high line and finish chances without needing repeated touches. Expecting a young replacement to reproduce all three qualities at the same level would be an unfair tactical demand. A more realistic brief would prioritize sharp movements across the nearest centre-back, clean layoffs to runners and pressing cues that help the rest of the team move forward together.
Bradley Barcola offers another route because he can operate across the front line. His pace could make him useful when City push defenders toward halfway, particularly if Liverpool choose to counter into wide channels rather than contest every central duel. But using a winger as the central reference can also weaken the width that creates those breaks. Every selection solution has a cost somewhere else on the pitch.
Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai provide the more creative alternatives. Both can move into advanced central spaces and have the technical range to connect short passes around the box. A false-nine setup could drag a defender away from the back line, opening lanes for midfield runners. The danger is that Liverpool then have plenty of players coming toward the ball and too few attacking the space behind. Against a side that can defend possession for long periods, that imbalance would make Liverpool easier to contain.
Federico Chiesa is another name around the squad, but his lack of recent minutes makes it risky to assume he can immediately carry a heavy workload. The sensible reading of Iraola's options is not that one replacement will rescue the attack. It is that the manager must distribute the missing work among several players. Koumas could supply central running, Barcola the depth, Wirtz the last pass and Szoboszlai the late arrival. The blend matters more than any single name.
Archive photo: Florian Wirtz playing for Liverpool against Fulham in January 2026. Timmy96 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0. Not a photograph of the City fixture.
City's Perfect Start Makes Every Liverpool Turnover More Expensive
Manchester City's five wins from five have established the clearest early benchmark in the league. Liverpool are unbeaten too, but two wins and three draws have left them six points behind the leaders. The difference is not merely cosmetic in October. If City win at Anfield, the gap becomes nine points after six matches; if Liverpool win, it shrinks to three. That arithmetic makes Sunday's meeting feel much bigger than a routine return from an international break.
The tactical danger for Liverpool is familiar even without reducing City to a single superstar. When a team controls territory, forces opponents into rushed clearances and keeps enough players around the ball to counterpress, an improvised forward line can spend long stretches chasing rather than creating. Liverpool need a credible route out of pressure. If Koumas or another central attacker cannot secure the first pass, City will be able to recycle attacks before Liverpool's midfield has time to reorganize.
Erling Haaland is an obvious reference point for City's finishing threat, but the challenge is collective. Liverpool's full-backs cannot charge forward without protection behind them; the central midfielders must recognize when to cover rather than join an attack; and the defenders need a coordinated decision on whether to squeeze up or protect the space behind. A makeshift Liverpool attack that loses the ball cheaply could turn those decisions into repeated emergencies.
There is also an unusually intense backdrop to City's first game since an independent commission found the club guilty of more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial rules. City deny wrongdoing and have appealed. The proceedings remain unresolved, and neither sporting sanctions nor their eventual outcome should be treated as settled. The case may shape the atmosphere and the headlines, but it does not alter the football problem Liverpool must solve: keeping enough control of possession to avoid spending the match defending waves of City attacks.
The best version of Liverpool's plan would not be reckless aggression or passive survival. It would involve selective pressure, quicker support around the first forward pass and enough runners to make City respect transitions. Liverpool can threaten the leaders without Isak and Gakpo, but they cannot afford to make every possession a desperate attempt to force the decisive ball.
Archive photo: Manchester City players before a 2025 match against Palermo, by SonoGrazy, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not the October 2026 match.
Anfield's Noise Will Matter Less Than Liverpool's Next Six Decisions
Anfield will not be short of emotion. Supporters have discussed an organized welcome for City's team bus, and the financial-case controversy adds another layer to an already fierce fixture. But a loud stadium is not a tactical system. The home side still has to protect its defensive shape, win enough second balls and make the first pass after a turnover count. Those details will decide whether the crowd can push Liverpool forward or is left reacting to City's control.
The first major decision is the identity of the central forward. A Koumas start would offer a natural point of reference, while a false-nine arrangement would trade some penalty-area presence for extra midfield connections. The second is how aggressively the wide players press City's build-up. If they jump at every pass, gaps can open behind them; if they sit too deep, Liverpool may have no outlet when possession changes. The third is whether the full-backs advance together or alternate their runs.
The fourth decision concerns midfield support. Wirtz and Szoboszlai can help a young striker by arriving near him when the ball travels forward rather than leaving him isolated against two defenders. The fifth is how quickly Liverpool abandon an attack that has stalled. There is no prize for forcing a final pass into three blue shirts when a reset can create a better angle. The sixth is substitution timing. A thin forward group makes fresh legs valuable, but it also reduces the manager's margin for a late correction.
Iraola has warned that the stretch of league and Champions League fixtures before November's international window will reveal a great deal about his team. That is an important distinction from treating Sunday as a one-off crisis. Even if Isak and Gakpo return relatively soon, Liverpool must develop ways to cope when the schedule compresses and availability changes. A club with major ambitions cannot rely on the same handful of attacking combinations surviving every international break.
Sunday's result will naturally dominate the reaction, but the performance will tell a deeper story. Can Liverpool move the ball through midfield under pressure? Can the replacement attackers create and receive in dangerous spaces? Can the back line resist City's transitions without retreating into its own box? Those are the questions that will matter after the noise fades, whatever the score.
Archive photograph: the Kop entrance at Anfield, Vojta.zurek / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Stadium image from 2023, not the October 2026 fixture.
The definitive news is that Isak and Gakpo will not face Manchester City. The more interesting football question is what Liverpool do with that absence. Koumas is a credible candidate to start, but Iraola has alternatives in Barcola, Wirtz and Szoboszlai, and none should be mistaken for a confirmed lineup. The answer is likely to involve shared responsibilities: better support for the central forward, disciplined pressing and a clearer route from midfield into the final third.
City's perfect start makes the test unforgiving, and Anfield's atmosphere will only raise the stakes. Liverpool do not need to discover a replacement who plays exactly like Isak. They need an attack that still makes sense without him or Gakpo. If they can manage that against the leaders, the lesson could last longer than Sunday's result.
