Manchester City have won all five, and Liverpool may face them without Isak and Gakpo

Andoni Iraola does not yet know whether he will have Alexander Isak or Cody Gakpo for the biggest game of his time at Liverpool so far. Both came home early from the international break, Isak with a thigh problem and Gakpo with an ankle injury, and Manchester City come to Anfield on Sunday, 11 October, having won all five of their league games. Kick-off is 4.30pm UK time, which is 9pm IST.

“I think Alex Isak and Cody Gakpo both have had to leave the national teams with injuries,” Iraola told beIN SPORTS. “Now it’s a matter of if they are going to recover in time to help us in the next game or not. But right now they are both injured.”

How the two forwards got hurt

Isak scored in Sweden’s 2-1 win over Romania in the Nations League and then left the camp. Graham Potter, now in charge of Sweden, described it as a small thigh problem. “It’s not a big one but because of the amount of games we’ve got in a small space of time, he won’t be able to make those,” he said.

Gakpo’s looks more serious. He lasted 17 minutes against Serbia in Belgrade on 27 September before going off with his ankle after a tackle from Saša Lukić. Xavi, the Netherlands coach, said at the time that he hoped it was “not too important”, but one Dutch journalist has since reported that he could be out for several weeks.

Liverpool already have Hugo Ekitike out with a long-term Achilles injury, so losing both Isak and Gakpo would leave them short of senior forwards against the league leaders. There is a defensive worry too. Jeremy Jacquet missed France’s 4-1 win over Belgium on Monday with a strain in his left hamstring, though Zinedine Zidane said he was only “slightly injured”.

City have their own Haaland question

Enzo Maresca’s side have 15 points from five games. Liverpool are sixth on nine, still unbeaten, but with three draws to go with their two wins.

City will not be completely at ease either. Erling Haaland signalled to the Norway bench and came off in the 67th minute of the 2-1 defeat to Portugal in Porto on 4 October, his fourth start in 11 days. Norway coach Ståle Solbakken put it down to tiredness rather than an injury, and Haaland is City’s only senior out-and-out striker, so they will be hoping he is right.

This is also City’s first game since an independent commission found them guilty of breaking the Premier League’s financial rules, which will only add to the noise around Anfield.

If Isak and Gakpo both miss out, I think Liverpool can still get something from this. They have not lost yet, and Anfield is a hard place for any side to keep a perfect record. Lose, though, and they would be nine points behind City after six games, which is a big gap to hand over this early.

Follow the build-up to Liverpool v Manchester City