LONDON — Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola said on Friday he will not ease off his high intensity demands despite suffering a series of injuries.
The Reds are set to be without Dominik Szoboszlai, Jeremie Frimpong and Victor Munoz for the visit of Brighton on Sunday, while Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo have recently returned from injuries picked up on international duty.
Iraola’s high-energy style at Bournemouth reaped success which earned him the job at Anfield, but for the first time in his managerial career he is having to deal with the added toll of European football.
“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,” Iraola added according to AFP.
“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 go into the weekend four points adrift of third-placed Brighton, who are the English Premier League’s top scorers with 23 goals in seven games.
“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,” Iraola 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.”
Szoboszlai’s return from injury was cut short in last weekend’s victory at Brentford, but Iraola is hopeful the Hungarian will not be sidelined for long.
“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,” said the Spaniard.
“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.”
