The striker crisis that shapes Sunday's teamsheet

Liverpool go into Sunday's home fixture against Manchester City with a forward line that looks rather different to what Andoni Iraola would have drawn up in his dreams. Alexander Isak, the club's top scorer, is sidelined with a thigh injury picked up on international duty with Sweden a fortnight ago. Cody Gakpo is nursing an ankle complaint sustained whilst representing the Netherlands, and Hugo Ekitike remains in the longer-term treatment room with an Achilles problem. Three main options to lead the attack, all unavailable at once.

That leaves Iraola weighing up some genuinely interesting alternatives. Lewis Koumas, the 20-year-old Wales international, could be handed his first Premier League start as a centre-forward. Florian Wirtz has also been mooted as a false nine. And there has been talk from the manager himself about the possibility of shifting one of the wide players into a central role, which is where Barcola's comments become relevant.

Barcola's verdict on his own role

Bradley Barcola, the £123million summer arrival from Paris Saint-Germain, has made it fairly clear that Iraola hasn't asked him to do anything beyond his natural wide positions. "No, not more than that," he said when asked about playing through the middle. "He asks me to do what I can do, to play as usual, so I can play on the left and on the right. It's true that I prefer to play on the left, but it doesn't bother me to play on the right, so there's no problem with that and I try to be ready to play left or right."

That reads as a fairly strong hint that Iraola isn't planning to reinvent Barcola as a makeshift centre-forward, at least not yet. Whether that changes between now and kick-off remains to be seen, but for now the France international sounds like a man who knows exactly where he'll be lining up.

What Barcola makes of City and the Premier League

Barcola is under no illusions about the scale of Sunday's task, though he carries a quiet confidence about Liverpool's own record this season. "It's going to be a very tough match, because Manchester City are a very good team," he said. "We'll be playing at home with all our fans, so I think we have that advantage and we know they'll be behind us. It's going to be tough, but we'll be ready. They haven't lost games, but we haven't lost any games either."

He's also acutely aware of what winning the opener of a punishing nine-match run in 29 days could mean for momentum. "It's going to be the game that's going to launch us in the series of games we're going to have," he said. "If we manage to win this game, it's going to be very good for the future." Barcola himself is still searching for his first goal or assist across five Liverpool appearances, but he says the adaptation process is well under way. "I think it's very intense. It's very different from Ligue 1. But yes, you have to work hard to be ready for a lot of running and that's what I try to do in training to be prepared for every match." The next 90 minutes might be the best chance yet to show it.