A double blow at the worst possible time

Andoni Iraola's relief at securing three points at Brentford on Saturday was short-lived. The Liverpool manager has confirmed that both Dominik Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong are facing spells on the sidelines after picking up injuries in a 2-1 victory that was anything but comfortable.

Szoboszlai was the more troubling of the two. The Hungarian was forced off shortly after the half-hour mark with what Iraola described as a recurrence of the hamstring problem that had already kept him out of the previous two matches. That is not the kind of update you want to hear about a player who has clearly not had enough time to properly recover. Frimpong, meanwhile, lasted just seven minutes after being introduced at half-time as a replacement for Ronald Araujo at right-back before he too was withdrawn.

Iraola spells out the problem plainly

The Liverpool manager did not try to dress it up. Speaking after the match, Iraola pointed to a brutal schedule as a significant factor, highlighting the toll of travelling back from a Champions League fixture in Austria just two days before the Brentford match. "We arrived back late at night and probably didn't have the proper recovery," he said. "So you are like in doubt between the players who have already started two games and are very tired, or the players who are recovering from injuries on whom you are not 100% sure."

On Szoboszlai specifically, he was direct: "Dom felt the same injury, so that injury probably isn't healed enough so we will need more time with him." And on Frimpong, he explained the reasoning behind bringing him on at all: "Jeremie was new. He finished the game cramping the other day. I put him in because playing against 10 I thought he would give us more going forward than Ronald." The conclusion was unambiguous: "It will mean we will lose Dom and Jeremie for some time."

The win itself was far from straightforward

The result came in chaotic circumstances. Brentford finished the match with nine men, with Yehor Yarmoliuk shown a red card in first-half added time after referee John Brooks adjudged him to have used a head-butting motion towards Liverpool centre-back Jeremy Jacquet. Skipper Vitaly Janelt was then dismissed late on for a second bookable offence when he fouled Liverpool substitute Rio Ngumoha.

Even with the numerical advantage, it was not plain sailing. Keane Lewis-Potter had given Brentford the lead with a first-half header, and Victor Munoz pulled the hosts level before Alexander Isak's winner settled it at the Gtech Community Stadium. Iraola was also notably cautious when asked about the red card incident: "I have to say I've seen it on the screen and I'm not sure if it was or not."

Nine matches in 29 days, and the squad is already feeling it

The timing could barely be worse. Liverpool are only three fixtures into a run of nine matches across 29 days in three competitions, and the squad is already carrying significant injury concerns. The depth and rotation options available to Iraola over the coming weeks will be tested severely, and the Szoboszlai news in particular casts a long shadow over what lies ahead.