If you were hoping to settle in on your sofa on Saturday afternoon and watch Brentford take on Liverpool live, then I’ve got some news that might disappoint you: this one isn’t on telly in the UK. The game kicks off at 3pm on Saturday 17 October at the Gtech Community Stadium, and that slot falls squarely inside the famous Saturday 3pm blackout, a long-standing rule that stops live football from being broadcast on UK television between 2:45pm and 5:15pm on Saturdays. The idea behind it is to protect attendances in the lower leagues and grassroots football, but for fans at home, it can feel like a frustrating throwback. So if you’re in the UK, you won’t be watching this one live, no matter how many streaming subscriptions you have. Instead, your best bet is to tune into BBC One’s Match of the Day on Saturday night, where highlights of the game will be shown. The exact time varies depending on the evening’s running order, so it’s worth checking BBC listings closer to the time. For supporters in the United States, the situation is much better. NBC holds the Premier League rights over there, and the 10am ET kick-off on Saturday should be available to stream on Peacock, as is usually the case for early Saturday games. So depending on where you are in the world, your experience of this match will be wildly different: some of you will be watching every pass live, while the rest of us will be dodging score alerts all afternoon and pretending we don’t know the result before the highlights start.
That’s the broadcast side of things, but for Liverpool fans, there’s a much bigger worry than the screen you’ll be watching on. The team is heading into this one with a few genuine fitness concerns hanging over some very important players. According to the Liverpool Echo, Alexander Isak has a thigh problem that he picked up while away on international duty with Sweden. Cody Gakpo, meanwhile, has an ankle injury from his time with the Netherlands, and Dominik Szoboszlai is dealing with hamstring tightness after playing for Hungary. None of the three was ready to feature in Liverpool’s midweek Champions League clash with LASK, a game that ended in a convincing 6-3 win, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re out of this one. Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola was asked about all three after that match, and he left the door firmly open. “It’s early for us to say,” he told the Echo. “We have training tomorrow, they weren’t ready last night.” He added, “I leave the chance open.” That’s about as non-committal as a manager can be, which is typical in the days before a Premier League match. Managers don’t want to give the opposition any advantage, and they certainly don’t want to tip their hand to fantasy football managers. But it does mean that anyone with these players in their Fantasy Premier League team is in for a tense weekend, because the official FPL data, updated on Friday night, has all three at just a 25% chance of playing. That’s a very low number, and it suggests the Liverpool medical staff are genuinely uncertain about whether any of them will be fit enough to start, or even make the bench.
Now, if you’re an FPL manager, that 25% figure is the kind of thing that can ruin your whole weekend. The gameweek 7 deadline is at 11am on Saturday morning, which means you’ll have to make your decisions before any official team news is released. That’s a horrible position to be in, because if you leave Isak, Szoboszlai, or Gakpo in your starting XI and they don’t play, you could be left with an automatic substitute who scores you two points, or worse. If you take them out and they do play, you’ll be kicking yourself. So what should you do? Honestly, I wouldn’t gamble on any of the three if I were you. A 25% chance is not good enough odds to risk a transfer or a captaincy pick, especially when there are other players who are almost certainly going to start. If you absolutely have to keep one of them because you don’t have enough moves left, then Szoboszlai is the cheapest option to be wrong about, at £6.9m. He’s the one who, if he doesn’t play, is least likely to wreck your team value or leave you with a huge bench problem. Isak, on the other hand, is a different story. At £9.0m, he’s the most expensive of the three, and having that much money sitting on your bench if he’s ruled out is a nightmare. If you’re thinking about bringing him in, I’d hold off. If you already own him, you have to decide whether you can afford to take the risk. There’s also a broader point here about who you trust when it comes to Liverpool transfer and team news. The general advice is to rely on well-connected journalists like James Pearce and Paul Joyce, rather than anonymous social media accounts that claim to have inside information. Those accounts might get lucky sometimes, but they’re often just guessing, and when your fantasy team is on the line, you want facts, not vibes.
Over at Brentford, there are plenty of injury concerns of their own, and they’ve been dealing with a pretty battered squad for a while now. Kevin Schade, who has a shoulder issue, and Jannik Schuster, who’s struggling with an ankle problem, both came off in the 2-2 draw at Aston Villa, and their availability for this one is genuinely up in the air. The good news for Brentford fans is that both players trained on the grass this week, which is a positive sign. Keith Andrews, speaking on the club’s official website, gave a cautious update: “We’ll see what tomorrow brings in terms of how much they can do.” That’s not exactly a guarantee, but it’s better than the alternative. There’s also some hope around Sepp van den Berg, who was on the bench at Villa Park despite not having played at all this season. He’s been dealing with a groin problem, so just being in the squad was a step forward, and he could be involved here. Nathan Collins, who has a calf issue, and Mikkel Damsgaard, who’s carrying an unspecified problem, weren’t in that squad at all, and both are listed as doubts for this match. The FPL data gives Collins a 50% chance of playing, while Schade, Schuster, and Damsgaard are all at 75%, which means they’re more likely to feature than not, but far from certain. On the more serious end of the scale, Kaye Furo is out after undergoing surgery on a metatarsal injury, and Josh Dasilva, who has been struggling with a hamstring problem, hasn’t played at all this season. It’s been a rough run of luck for Brentford, but there is one bright spot: Dango Ouattara, who picked up an illness while on Burkina Faso duty, is now back and Andrews says he has “no concerns” about him. That’s a big relief, because Ouattara has been an important part of their attacking setup, and losing him on top of everything else would have been a real blow.
So when will we actually know who’s playing? Team sheets are usually published around 75 minutes before kick-off, which means you should have confirmation by roughly 13:45 UK time on Saturday. Until then, anything you read about the lineup is just a prediction, no matter how confident the headline sounds. The Liverpool predicted lineup for this game is essentially a waiting game on those three doubtful players. If Isak, Szoboszlai, and Gakpo are all ruled out, Iraola will have to reshuffle his attack, and that could change the whole dynamic of the game. If they’re fit enough to start, then Liverpool suddenly look a lot more dangerous going forward. The club has a busy run of fixtures coming up after this one, with Brighton at home in the league next, followed by Arsenal, so it’s possible the manager will be cautious with anyone who isn’t 100% fit. You don’t want to rush a player back and then lose them for three or four games in a much more important stretch. That’s the balancing act every Premier League manager faces in October, especially after an international break that always seems to produce more injuries than anyone expects. For Brentford, the same logic applies. With a squad that’s already thin in places, they’ll be desperate to avoid any more casualties. The game is a big one for both sides, not just because of the points, but because it’s a chance to build momentum. There’s also a note for those following the wider transfer stories: Wirtz is available, according to the same update, which might be relevant if you’re planning future moves or just keeping an eye on the market. But for now, the focus is squarely on Saturday afternoon and who lines up for both teams.
At the end of the day, this is one of those matches where the build-up is almost as tense as the game itself. If you’re a Liverpool fan, you’ll be refreshing your phone at 1:45pm on Saturday, waiting for the official team sheet to drop, and hoping to see at least one or two of those big names included. If you’re a Brentford fan, you’ll be hoping the players who trained this week are fit enough to start, and that the squad isn’t too stretched to put up a fight against a Liverpool side that just scored six in the Champions League. And if you’re an FPL manager, you’ll be staring at your team with a calculator and a headache, trying to work out whether to take a hit or trust your bench. The frustrating thing is that there’s no perfect answer. Injuries are part of football, and the international break always makes things messier. The best you can do is set your team before the deadline, keep an eye on the official club channels for news, and then accept that you can’t control everything. As for watching the game, UK fans will have to be patient and wait for Match of the Day, which means avoiding social media for the rest of the evening if you want to enjoy the highlights without knowing the final score. It’s an old-fashioned way to watch football in 2026, but there’s something almost nostalgic about it. So make a cup of tea, settle in on Saturday night, and let the highlights do the talking. Whether you’re in the UK, the US, or somewhere else entirely, this is a match with plenty at stake, and by the time the final whistle blows, we’ll finally know which of those injury doubts made it onto the pitch. Until then, all we can do is wait, hope, and try not to make any hasty fantasy decisions we’ll regret.