Andoni Iraola spoke to the media ahead of Liverpool hosting Chelsea in the Carabao Cup, with updates on Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai among the key headlines

Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola addressed the media ahead of facing Chelsea in the Carabao Cup earlier, offering an update on injuries and much more.

The Reds have won each of their last four matches in all competitions and are looking to continue building some positive momentum in a big week that also includes a clash with Arsenal. This is everything Iraola had to say.

Injury latest: "I don’t think I can help you a lot. We still have to wait; we train later. We want to [use] this last day. He was quite fine, Florian (Wirtz) — I’m quite optimistic that he will be available. And with Dom (Szoboszlai) and Victor (Munoz), I’m not so sure. I don’t want to say no, but I think it’s going to be more difficult than Florian, yes."

Facing Xabi Alonso: "I'm lucky because I have a lot of friends in front. They are good coaches but, like happened [in the] past week with Inigo (Perez), I think after the game — whatever happens — we will have a moment to at least have five minutes to chat with each other, yes.

"I think we've done already, I don't know, maybe 25 interviews talking about our relationship, and I can talk again. But I think in this moment everyone knows that we were close friends, we grew up together, we played in the same team. We played as football players against each other, we played together in the national team in Spain and with the Basque Country.

"But now he's the opposition and we want to beat him — and the same way he will do with us. After the game, we can talk, definitely.

"I said the other day with Inigo and it's the same with Xabi, once we are playing against each other, the relationship is not good because you kind of stop talking to the other, kind of a respect thing. But he's a very good friend and I wish him all the best, definitely."

Importance of winning a trophy: "I think every competition is an opportunity, especially when you are the coach of Liverpool. You have to take it like this.

"I would love to win tomorrow and have the chance to get further in the competition. But I know that we have to play very well, we have to beat a very good team. It's also a team that doesn't play in Europe, so for sure for them this competition is also very important. So, it's not going to be easy."

Recent progression: "The more time we stay together, the more experiences we have together. The more comebacks, the more sometimes losses, the better you know each other and the easier it is to have references, to evolve.

"We want to do this process while we win games and that's the secret. But now every game is a challenge, everything is costing us, but we have to keep going."

Alexander Isak form: "I think Alex feels the trust of everyone. Everyone trusts that if he moves into good positions, he will score goals.

"But I always tell him he has to help us so we can give you the chances, and I think he understands that necessity. I hope that can continue at the same level."

Liverpool performance against Brighton: "I always said, who controls the game is who controls the chances. It's not who has the ball. I think against Brighton, for example, they had the ball more than us, but the ball is spent in their half more than in our half.

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"I was really pleased with the performance, but definitely there are things we can improve. We had a good spell in the last 10 minutes, we controlled much better. We had a moment in the second half where we were defending well, but conceding probably too much territory.

"Overall, I would like to play the game like how we played in the first 30, 35 minutes. That's our goal long-term, but I understand that normally you don’t arrive there. You can extend it, you can have your moments, but I would love it if we can keep this level for all the games.

"Normally, during 90 minutes, you'll have moments where you have to stay more compact, you have to play differently, and we should be able to differentiate and control the games like this. The other day, I was quite pleased.

"The same way against Villarreal, I felt we had spells where they were controlling us, especially first half, and we weren't comfortable. But the other day, having the ball or not, I thought the team was more or less in control of the situation."