Mac continues to show respect for his former club

Xabi Alonso admits Liverpool attacker Florian Wirtz is one of the main reasons the Chelsea manager is in the position he is today.

Alonso and Wirtz enjoyed unparalleled success together during their time together at Bayer. The Germany international was one of the Spanish coach's star players in the side's 51-match unbeaten run, stemming across the 2023/24 season, where Bayer were crowned Bundesliga champions for the first time.

Wirtz scored 18 goals and provided 19 assists across all competitions during the German side's historic season. In the summer of 2025, less than a month after Alonso's departure to join Real Madrid, Liverpool signed Wirtz in a £116million deal.

However, the 23-year-old playmaker has struggled during his time at Anfield, although has shown signs of improving over the last four matches. In 60 appearances in all competitions, the German has scored eight goals and provided 11 assists.

There has been plenty of criticism thrown Wirtz's way but Alonso, who is returning to Anfield on Wednesday evening for the first time since becoming Chelsea manager, has nothing but fond memories of the "special" Liverpool attacker.

"I can only speak about my time with Flo in Bayer Leverkusen and for sure one of the main reasons for me being here is the time that I spent with him in Leverkusen," said Alonso. "He was a special player, he helped me so much, I learned so much from him and now that he's in Liverpool I'm following him and we know that the next step is always an interesting one and he's getting there."

Michael Owen says he’d probably give up his Ballon d’Or to have been part of Liverpool’s 2005 UCL winning squad. Not what I expected from him, personally, but I’m glad to see he speaks some sense every now and then.

The Reds come into the Anfield tie on the back of four consecutive victories in all competitions.

The most recent of those was recorded last Sunday, with the in-form Brighton & Hove Albion beaten 2-0 in the Premier League.

In his matchday programme notes for the game against Chelsea, head coach Iraola explains what pleased him most about the success over the Seagulls and how wins become addictive.

“Straight after our game against Brighton on Sunday I was asked how happy I was that the team had made it four wins in a row and I said I was very happy,” he writes. “This is obvious of course but there is another side to winning that is also very important – it leaves you wanting more.

“It does not matter what competition we are playing in, what team we select or what the general situation is, we always want to win and that feeling only grows when you know what it means to earn a victory.

“It is also made bigger by the knowledge that in every game that we play our opponents will have exactly the same ambition and this will definitely be the case tonight when we play a very strong Chelsea team in the Carabao Cup.

“This will be the second time in successive rounds that we have faced a Premier League team from London in this competition and we can expect that challenge from Chelsea to be just as aggressive as it was from Spurs. They have a squad with a lot of quality and in Xabi Alonso they have a manager whose record as a player and a coach speaks for itself.

Inside Anfield: Liverpool 3-1 Tottenham | Tunnel Cam from cup win!

“Xabi is someone who I know well and someone our supporters have a lot of affection for, so I would like to offer him the warmest of welcomes in the knowledge that once the game begins no-one involved will be looking to do anyone any favours. None of us would have it any other way.

“At the time of writing these notes it is too early to know which starting line-up we will select. First we will have to see how the players recover after the Brighton game and we will also have to consider how much freshness we can add into the team to give us the best possible chance of playing in the way we would like to.

“During periods like this when we are playing every few days it is always a case of finding the best match-ups we can while also thinking how we are going to finish the game. This is especially true when you are playing Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday and all of the opponents are of a very high level.

“But whatever team we pick will go out there with the same objectives that we have in every match we play. We have to show the same desire to defend our own goal, the same positive aggression in duels and the same commitment to being dangerous in transition as we did on Sunday.

“If we do this, we will give ourselves the best possible chance of making it through to the next round.

“The victory over Brighton showed once again the importance of doing the basics well. I love that this is something that our supporters respond to.

“This was something I knew already from my time as an opposition manager but feeling it on this side – especially those moments when the whole crowd reacts to a tackle being won or a player showing big desire – is something that, like winning, I could never get enough of.

“We know it will not be easy but we are looking to create more of those moments tonight. If we can do this, we will see where it takes us.”

I've been reading and watching a lot of content about what's been happening at United since Ferguson retired. This recent news about Carrick staying on has the mancs even more despondent than usual, many of them accepting that the club is a shell of itself and that got me thinking.

My question to you folks that witnessed Liverpool's downfall throughout the 90s into the 2000s; At what point did it become crystal clear to you that the club was in serious long term trouble?

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Tuesday, October 27th
7:45 PM - Bradford 2 - 0 Peterborough FT
^{Macaulay Gillesphey 13', Adam Phillips 67'}
7:45 PM - Dortmund 3 - 2 Bremen FT
^{Serhou Guirassy 6', Carney Chukwuemeka 17', Marcel Sabitzer 90+3'; Niclas Füllkrug 65' (P\}, 68')
8:00 PM - Fleetwood 1 (5) - 1 (3) Arsenal FT AP
^{Aaron Loupalo-Bi 21'; Viktor Gyökeres 50'
Red Card: Max Dowman 85' (ARS\})
^{PSO: Ronan Coughlan (1* - 0\}, Martin Ødegaard (1 - 1), Harrison Neal (2 - 1), Kai Havertz (2 - 2), Will Davies (3 - 2), Viktor Gyökeres (3 - 3), Andy Cannon (4 - 3), Bruno Guimarães (4 - 3), Conor Haughey (5 - 3))

Wednesday, October 28th
7:30 PM - Man City vs Brighton
7:45 PM - Bayern vs Magdeburg
7:45 PM - Bournemouth vs Aston Villa
7:45 PM - Fulham vs Crystal Palace
7:45 PM - Leverkusen vs Nuremberg
7:45 PM - Sunderland vs Brentford
8:00 PM - Liverpool vs Chelsea

Thursday, October 29th
7:45 PM - Everton vs Newcastle