Six goals, but the questions haven't gone away

Liverpool needed a response after the 3-0 mauling by Manchester City, and by any measure they delivered one. A 6-3 victory over LASK in Austria was explosive, breathless and exactly the kind of night that reminds you why this team can still take your breath away. Bradley Barcola grabbed the headlines with his first senior hat-trick, and there were goal contributions from an unlikely source as defenders Jeremie Frimpong, Kostas Tsimikas and Ronald Araujo all got in on the act.

But three goals conceded in the closing stages were a nagging footnote to an otherwise euphoric evening. Liverpool can put six past you and still leave the manager with a list of things to sort out. That tension between attacking brilliance and defensive fragility has become one of the defining features of this campaign, and Wednesday night captured both sides of it perfectly.

Iraola names the Frimpong and Araujo trade-off

Andoni Iraola was refreshingly candid after the final whistle about the selection puzzle that is forming on the right side of his defence. With Conor Bradley still absent through injury, the manager has been rotating between Frimpong and Araujo at right-back, and he is under no illusions about the very different propositions each of them represents.

"It is clear the difference in the team when we play with Jeremie and Ronald," Iraola said. "The demands we put on the players are completely different. Jeremie helps us more offensively as he can arrive in the final third positions, but that does leave more space behind because you can't cover everything. Ronald is the opposite because he is more comfortable defending as a center-back, but he doesn't give us the runs in behind, overlaps, or the options that Jeremie does. It is about us seeing what we need from the game, but we need to keep them both in a good place so we have those options during games. Until we recover Conor, I am happy to have those options."

Frimpong backed that assessment up with two assists and a goal against LASK, whilst Araujo marked his night with his first strike for the club. Five of Araujo's nine appearances have come at right-back, which tells you something about how much the manager trusts him in that role despite it not being his natural position. It is a luxury problem in one sense, though a genuine tactical headache in another.

Gerrard puts his finger on the Wirtz problem

Wirtz chipped in with an assist on Wednesday, teeing up Barcola's second of the evening, and it was arguably his most encouraging performance since arriving at Anfield. It was a positive sign, but the broader picture remains difficult to ignore. The 23-year-old is still without a goal of his own in the 2026/27 campaign, and for a player who cost £116 million, the scrutiny is only ever going to intensify.

Steven Gerrard addressed the situation directly on the Stick to Football podcast, and he did not shy away from the uncomfortable reality. "I am not denying that he is underperforming and that we should have seen a lot more given his price tag," the former Reds skipper said. "But I just think there is a chance, and it's happened previously, that players can turn it around. I think he's got the talent to turn it around, but his confidence is shot at the moment."

Gerrard's diagnosis feels right. Talent at that level does not simply vanish, but confidence can hollow out even the most gifted footballer, and when that happens it shows in every touch, every hesitation, every decision made a fraction too late. The assist against LASK at least suggests the spark is still in there somewhere. Whether Wirtz can fan it into a proper flame, and soon, is the question that will define a significant chunk of Liverpool's season.