Andoni Iraola says both Dominik Szoboszlai and Victor Munoz have that … more

Both players were absent in midweek as Liverpool beat Chelsea on penalties in the EFL Cup to reach the quarter-finals.

Szoboszlai has been missing with a recurring hamstring issue, and last featured for Liverpool in their 2-1 win over Brentford on October 17th.

Munoz has also missed three games, having picked up a knee injury in the same match.Iraola was cautiously optimistic, saying:

โ€œThey have a chance, but I donโ€™t know for sure if they will be involved or not, but we still have two days so I think we have a chance.โ€It is unlikely that Jeremie Frimpong will feature, having been brought on against Brentford but taken off just seven minutes later with a hamstring injury.

When asked about Ryan Gravenberchโ€™s โ€œup-and-downโ€ season, meanwhile, Iraola replied: โ€œHe is playing a lot a lot of minutes and has played also very good games recently.โ€œHe has had better games and worse games. We trust him and we know what he can produce.

Like other players, when he doesnโ€™t play well we try to help him improve. He is in good place.โ€Liverpool sit in fourth, six points behind Arsenal in second and could halve the deficit with a win at Anfield on Sunday.

โ€œItโ€™s too early to start looking at the standings, I think itโ€™s about preparing ourselves for a very difficult game,โ€ Iraola said.โ€œWe know Arsenal how good they are, very good players, working a lot, working in synchrony, knowing each other very well and we have to be ready for that challenge,โ€ he added.

โ€œI think itโ€™s going to be a demanding game but I trust our players and ourselves and in a good atmosphere that we will have on Sunday, I hope we can be on the level to win this game.โ€While at Bournemouth, Iraola won three of the four matches his side played against Arsenal, though he insisted it was not relevant given it was โ€œa totally different team, different group of players, different moment.

โ€He added: โ€œI think we canโ€™t use exactly the same things we used with Bournemouth against Arsenal, I think we have to use different tools, use our players as good as we can and trusting. โ€œItโ€™s going to be a matter of winning the duels and running more than them, winning the aerial duels, winning the set-play mini games where you have to control situations.โ€


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