I trust Wirtz and Barcola - Iraola

Andoni Iraola insists he trusts Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola "100%" as Liverpool prepare to face LASK in the Champions League.

Barcola cost £123m this summer while Wirtz cost £116m a year earlier, though many feel the duo have yet to deliver the kind of output to justify their price tags.

With Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai all absent with injuries, focus has intensified on the pair. The injured trio have scored nine out of Liverpool's 12 goals this season.

"It's true that Cody, Alex and Dom are our top scorers this season," Iraola said.

"They have also been the ones playing more in those positions and now we don't have them. We need other players to give us those numbers.

"We trust the players we have now to play in those positions. These things, with the injuries, have been because of the international break and it will happen to other teams.

"It is a matter of adapting to these circumstances. With Bradley and Flo, they have had good games and bad games this season like everyone else. We know their level and we know they will give us good performances."

And Iraola added that he wasn't too bothered about their respective transfer fees, despite Wirtz only managing one assist so far this season and Barcola failing to get a goal involvement yet.

"The possibilities are the same. The other day, if (Lewis) Koumas scores the goal that he connects with really well, then it is one assist for Bradley Barcola. His performance is exactly the same but we will all say, 'he played really well with an assist'.

"Sometimes we focus only on the numbers. With Bradley, the other day, he had good situations and we did not finish them. Bradley and Flo are players that I trust 100%."

This is Liverpool's second game in a spell where they have four fixtures in 10 days and as such, Iraola admitted he will make some changes against Austria's LASK.

He added: "Tomorrow is a game we want to win and need to win. We want to start this competition as strong as possible. We won the first game and want to win the second one. But it's true that because of some niggles it is going to be difficult to put out exactly the same starting eleven tomorrow."