Bradley Barcola is “ready to play more minutes” when Liverpool host Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night.
The Frenchman, who joined from Paris Saint-Germain last week, made his debut as a second-half substitute in Friday’s 2-0 win at Ipswich Town.
Bradley Barcola is now in line to make his first appearance at Anfield, with Andoni Iraola asked whether the winger could start against Atletico.
“Yes, I think he played overall with extra time 31 [minutes] maybe or something like this [at Ipswich],” Iraola replied. “I think he’s ready to play more minutes.
“He has been training quite normally. The only thing is he hasn’t had the pre-season minutes that normally players have.
“We have to consider this, but I see him in a really good place. I think he can play more minutes definitely.
“I don’t see him like limited, no, I see him like a normal player with this circumstance that he hasn’t had a lot of pre-season minutes to build his form.
“But I saw him playing very well and I think he is ready to play more, yes.”
Liverpool are heading into a period that will see them play three games in the space of a week for the first time this season.
Fulham visit Anfield in the Premier League on Saturday, followed by a Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur three days later in L4.
On handling a more congested schedule, Iraola said: “This is going to be a challenge, I hope, all the season because it would mean we continue in all the competitions.
“In this case, it’s not the worst scenario because we played last Friday so we’ve had I think a good recovery.
“Probably it’s going to be more difficult for next weekend, especially for the next game against Spurs in the Carabao Cup because we’ll have just two days, game, two days, game.
“But we have to get used to this – it’s what big clubs do.
“Definitely there is part of your mind where you have to think [about] the next games. But for us, the game tomorrow is very important.”
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