Iraola not ruling out Liverpool duo from featuring against Arsenal
Andoni Iraola says both Dominik Szoboszlai and Victor Munoz “have a chance” of featuring against Arsenal this weekend.
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: “They have a chance, but I don’t know for sure if they will be involved or not, but we still have two days so I think we have a chance.”
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 Gravenberch’s “up-and-down” season, meanwhile, Iraola replied: “He is playing a lot a lot of minutes and has played also very good games recently.
“He has had better games and worse games. We trust him and we know what he can produce. Like other players, when he doesn’t play well we try to help him improve. He is in good place.”
Liverpool sit in fourth, six points behind Arsenal in second and could halve the deficit with a win at Anfield on Sunday.
“It’s too early to start looking at the standings, I think it’s about preparing ourselves for a very difficult game,” Iraola said.
“We 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,” he added. “I think it’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.”
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 “a totally different team, different group of players, different moment.”
He added: “I think we can’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.
“It’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.” —
