The squad sheet that tells its own story

There are injury crises, and then there is whatever this is. Liverpool travel to Austria for their Champions League fixture against LASK with a forward line that reads more like a development squad than a side contending in Europe's elite competition. Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo are all out injured, Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo are ineligible, and long-term absentees Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni remain sidelined. Andoni Iraola has been left with little choice but to call upon academy youngsters Jayden Danns, Joshua Sonni-Lambie, James McConnell, Luke Chambers and Wellity Lucky simply to make the numbers up.

The attacking options available to Iraola make for sobering reading. Bradley Barcola, Victor Munoz, Rio Ngumoha, Lewis Koumas, Danns and Sonni-Lambie form the attacking contingent, and between the six of them they have managed just seven goals for the club in total. None have come in Europe. Only three have come in the Premier League. Danns leads that particular chart with three career goals for the Reds, which rather sums up the situation. By contrast, the five players unavailable through injury and ineligibility have contributed a combined 113 goals for the club. That gap is not a number you can paper over.

What the history books say about this fixture

Liverpool won 3-1 at LASK back in September 2023, but that was the Europa League and the circumstances were very different. On that occasion, the manager at the time made 11 changes from the previous Premier League victory yet still fielded Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Darwin Nunez and Ryan Gravenberch in his starting XI. From the bench came Mohamed Salah, Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Joel Matip, while Alisson Becker, Diogo Jota and Gakpo were among those left unused entirely. Quick-fire goals from Nunez and a second from Diaz put the Reds in control before Salah wrapped it up late on. What Iraola would give for that kind of depth right now.

Of the travelling squad for this fixture, only Van Dijk, Florian Wirtz, Mac Allister and Gravenberch have ever scored in the Champions League for Liverpool. Their combined return in the competition stands at 13 goals, with Mac Allister leading the way on six. Barcola arrives with Champions League pedigree and back-to-back winner's medals, but his personal tally in the competition is just six goals. Iraola needs players to step up and fill a goalscoring void that has rarely looked bigger.

Salah's Trabzonspor form lands at the worst possible time

And then, inevitably, there is Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian left Liverpool this summer after tearing up the final year of his contract, joining Trabzonspor on a free transfer following a difficult final season that brought just 12 goals, a public falling-out with his manager and the occasional spell on the bench. He departs as Liverpool's third-highest all-time goalscorer on 257 goals, and as the club's all-time leading scorer in both the Champions League and European competition altogether, with 48 and 53 goals respectively.

His 34-year-old legs, it turns out, still have plenty left in them. Nine games into his Trabzonspor career, Salah has already equalled his entire Premier League goal tally from his final season at Anfield. Seven goals and three assists from his first seven Turkish Super Lig matches includes a hat-trick in a 4-0 demolition of league leaders Galatasaray. He is the joint-leading scorer and joint-leading creator in the Turkish top flight, and has already become the fastest player in the modern history of the league to reach 10 goal contributions. He also sits 12th on the all-time Champions League scoring list with 54 career goals, with the nearest active player competing in Europe trailing him by 20.

The Turkish Super Lig is not the Premier League, and nobody is pretending otherwise. But the suggestion that Salah was finished, that Liverpool had timed their exit perfectly, looks considerably shakier from here. As Iraola stares at a threadbare attack ahead of a Champions League night in Austria, the timing of that particular reality check could hardly be more pointed.